Washington DC, MD & VA

The nationally acclaimed New Driver Car Control Clinic® is now available in the Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland area. The Clinic is a six-hour, hands-on, in-car accident avoidance and defensive driving skills clinic for teens and their parents.

All parent/student teams attend an evening classroom session for about 90 minutes.  Each team then attends one 4-hour behind-the-wheel session in the morning or afternoon on the date selected. Learner's Permit/License and parent required for both sessions.

Price & Cancellation Policy -- Unless stated otherwise, tuition is $169 per parent-student team. The tuition is non-refundable, nor changeable to another clinic date.  You may, however offer your space to another family with a new driver and work out the finances between you.

All clinics shown below are available to the general public regardless of location.

Remember, one in four teens will crash in their first year of driving.  New Driver Car Control Clinic graduates have a proven record of 77% fewer crashes than their untrained peers.  Now, there is something parents can do to make their new drivers safer.

The New Driver Car Control Clinic is all about changing the anatomy of an accident by pre-programming the sub-conscious to break the chain of panic -- to prepare the driver mentally and physically to react to surprises with skill and precision. And more importantly, to recognize impending danger earlier so that they never enter the emergency zone where accidents lurk. This popular behind-the-wheel Clinic focuses on teaching parents and teens critical accident-avoidance maneuvers and defensive-driving skills such as

• eye management - judging spatial relationships
• steering management - making the car go precisely where you want it to, even in an emergency and
• brake management - the so-called panic stop without the panic.
• The exercises are performed in a series of cone patterns in the family's own car on both wet and dry pavement.

"Driving is a psychomotor skill," says Clinic founder David Thompson. "Just like learning to play the piano requires an actual keyboard, so does learning to control an automobile in an emergency demand that you actually drive a car."

Why skill training is different than Drivers Ed.

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 How it Works & What's Required -- Parents are required at both the classroom and behind-the-wheel sessions. Behind-the-wheel sessions are limited to ten parent-student teams per session. Teens must have at least their Learner's Permit (Temps). The teen should have enough driving experience to be comfortable making the car go forwards, backwards, left and right. This usually requires from 4 to 8 hours behind the wheel. Families use their own car -- preferably the one the teen is most likely to end up driving. Each team receives a 90-minute classroom session on vehicle dynamics and human dynamics -- why the car, and the driver, behave the way they do in an emergency; -- 4 hours of in-car instruction; a 45-minute video and 56-page workbook with diagrams of ten exercises, a log and a Parent-Teen contract so that they can continue to practice these life-saving maneuvers.

Who We Are -- The New Driver Car Control Clinic is an ten-year-old program available in Florida, Tennessee, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC. Developed by automotive journalist and racecar driver David Thompson, the curriculum is an adaptation of the skills taught to fire, police and other emergency vehicle drivers. Terri Ranson, driver's education teacher in North Carolina says, "Thirty hours of classroom and six hours behind the wheel [in traditional driver's ed] cannot truly make a safe driver. This program is a wonderful grand finale to what we start in driver's ed. I highly recommend it." Florida parents and teens agree. "This course saved my child's life," Debbie Still of Palm Beach says. "If I had a million dollars I would take every one of my son's friends to this clinic in case he is ever riding with them in an emergency situation. I have my son today, thanks to [this clinic]," she exclaims.