Dunn Tire LLC, Kumho Tire U.S.A. Inc. and KeyBank are hosting a free two-day “Key to Safe Teen Driving” program. It will be conducted at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., Aug. 8-9, 2011.
The community outreach program is designed specifically for teenage drivers between the ages of 15-and-a-half and 20. Teens will learn out-of-the-ordinary driving skills from professional instructors from the Mid-Ohio School, which has offered performance driving and defensive driving programs for adults and teenagers since 1993.
“The Kumho Safe Teen Driving Program prepares teens for driving circumstances they may not have encountered in driver’s education by exposing them to unusual conditions and circumstances," says Pat Logue, Dunn Tire's managing director of retail operations. "Our goal is for them to be better drivers when they complete this program."
The free Key to Safe Teen Driving class will be offered in four separate sessions each day for area teens. The sessions will occur from
* 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.,
* 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,
* 12:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., and
* 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
They consist of a classroom session and hands-on drills involving wet braking, skid control and emergency lane changes. The wet braking and emergency lane change drills will be conducted using each participant’s street-legal automobile.
Program instruction will include the physics and dynamics of driving; defensive driving and responsible behavior; wet braking; emergency lane changes and collision-avoidance; slalom and weight-transfer maneuvers; and adverse weather conditions. Experiential learning will take place in each participant’s own vehicle as well as in the program’s Honda Civic Skid Car. Vehicle maintenance and tire changing demonstrations also will occur during the program.
Any teen with a valid driver’s license or driving permit may sign up, although number of participants per class is limited. Participants must show proof insurance and have use of a vehicle for the event.
For more information or to sign up for the event, visit www.keytosafeteendriving.com.
Additionally, Dunn Tire will host free tire safety checks August 8-9 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in conjunction with the “Key to Safe Teen Driving” class. Area residents will have the opportunity to have their tires inspected by Dunn Tire technicians from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the stadium parking lot.
The “Key to Safe Teen Driving” program was established in 2009 by KeyCorp's KeyBank subsidiary and Kumho Tires with the overall goal of improving the driving skills of teen drivers and raising awareness about the need for better training of young drivers.
Dunn Tire, based in Buffalo, N.Y., is 35th on the MTD 100 list of independent tire dealer chains in the United States with 31 retail outlets.
