Steering teens toward safer driving

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Kari Kroger didn’t flinch when son Jordan hit a rough patch and lost control.

Matt Dammeyer chuckled while daughter Ashley repeatedly met obstacles she couldn’t handle.

John Shalvoy sat idly by while son Jack spun his wheels and got nowhere.

Welcome to the Bloom School of Driving Dynamix, where time spent on skid row carries no shame.

Founded by Mark Bloom, a longtime driving enthusiast and former race-car driver, the Ohio school occupies a world apart from traditional training centers, which gently introduce 15- and 16-year-olds to the rules of the road with workbooks, movies and parking-lot maneuvers.

The Bloom School serves licensed drivers, who receive a crash course in how to handle a vehicle when something goes wrong.

Skidding, swerving, hard braking and emergency lane-changing are all part of the curriculum.

“Sometimes, I refer to our program as fighter-pilot training for new teen drivers,” said Bloom, an Upper Arlington resident, 50, who operates the school on the Ricart Automotive Group campus near Groveport.

Bloom, who hires former state troopers and other driving experts as instructors, knows the ropes: Raised in Mansfield, he started racing cars in amateur events shortly after obtaining his driver’s license at age 16.

He turned professional at 25, racing IndyCars and sports cars for three seasons before trying instruction. After a stint at the Mid-Ohio School near Mansfield, he opened the Bloom School at Ricart in 2005. (The businesses are separate.)

Most of his clients have a year or two of experience and a blemish on their driving record.

In the past two years, the juvenile division of the Franklin County Common Pleas Court has referred about 375 young drivers as an option for having their licenses reinstated.

Magistrate Susan House even sent her teenage daughter, pre-emptively.

“I just felt that she would benefit from it,” House said. “I didn’t have the nerve or the facilities to put my daughter through those paces, but they do.”

Doug Heard, a retired state trooper, instructs students in wet steering and braking.

Like an automotive matador, he stood bravely near rows of orange cones as wide-eyed teenagers slammed on their brakes and tried to steer while driving on soaking-wet pavement.

“They have no experience, and they think they’re invincible,” said Heard, who investigates accidents and gives courtroom testimony for Law Science Technologies of West Milton, Ohio. “It drives me nuts.”

For three hours on a recent Saturday morning, students took turns trying various maneuvers, swerving here and braking hard there.

Many hadn’t faced such challenging conditions before.

With repetition, though, their apprehension turned to skill.

“It’s an experience that a lot of kids should have,” said Ashley Dammeyer, a junior at Central Crossing High School. “This is so much better than driver’s training. I think this should be required.”

Westerville sisters Ashley, 17, and Lauren Leddy, 18 — who attend St. Francis DeSales High School — were sent by their father, not the court. They took turns driving a sporty black Mercury Cougar. “It’s never fun to lose control,” Lauren said, “but it’s comforting to know that I can do this over and over again.”

After watching his daughter from the sidelines, Matt Dammeyer had the nerve to become a passenger in her Chevrolet Tracker for the final maneuvers. He called the experience “white-knuckle” — but worthwhile.