2010 ALERT International Conference

LAS VEGAS, NV, - SKIDCAR SYSTEM, Inc. was pleased to have the opportunity to attend the 2010 ALERT (Association of Professional Law Enforcement Emergency Response Trainers) International Conference. For many months, we at SKIDCAR SYSTEM, Inc. have been working diligently to complete the curriculum details of our new ESC focused training program. It was presented in an abbreviated format for the first time during this conference, and judging from all feedback and accounts of the experience, the workshop was a great success.

We want to thank Director RuthAnn Baugh and Randy Jacoby of the Precision Driving Training Center OSU-OKC for their hospitality and use of their facility and Ford Expedition fitted with a SKIDCAR SYSTEM™. An outstanding number of attendees were able to get behind the wheel for the hands-on component of exposing ESC during our presentations, thanks to the PDTC accommodations.

In the last three years, SKIDCAR SYSTEM, Inc. has gained extensive knowledge through the use of our own SKIDCAR™ demonstration unit and by driving other vehicles both with and without ESC in the USA and Europe. This combination of experiences has provided us a very clear picture of the curriculum needed for future training with ESC.

Those that drove the PDTC Expedition with SKIDCAR found that ESC activates when the driver does something incorrect behind the wheel. Previously accepted control techniques only slowed down the recovery times and increased the amount of road surface used. All the while, ESC was doing its best to correct the driver’s problems. We feel that as we teach students how to drive with ESC rather than against it, control techniques will be more straightforward and take less time to master, ultimately providing more time for important components like a proactive thought process. Not surprisingly, everyone who participated in this exercise felt the same way. There is no question about the need for calculated exposure to these programs, and that assessment was only further reinforced by the outcome of our experience at ALERT.

The nature of the EVOC industry has always been one resistant to change. A perfect example is past skid control and cornering curriculum. The old training focuses singularly on a rear wheel or over steer skid and racing path of travel strategies that just don’t make sense in today’s driving environment. Doing nothing to change curriculum has proven to be the easiest course of action for a very long time. After training in the EVOC environment for more than 20 years, the minimal changes we have seen in curricula have failed to evolve much with modern thought process, technology, and environment.

Instructors did evolve however, due to years of experience and the personal initiative to increase their own knowledge. But now we are seeing a “changing of the guard” as many of these instructors are retiring. Without years of trial and error to lean on, young new instructors are turning to the published curriculum for guidance - the same curriculum that hasn’t changed in nearly two decades. It seems only practical that to increase safety and efficiency, we need to move forward with new ideas that work, utilizing the new technology available. Then, the new generation of instructors will be better equipped to train a new generation driver accustomed to learning in a different way.

Through the development of ESC, the automobile manufacturers and their safety system engineers have taken positive steps to forever change the way we will think about controlling a Car, Truck, or SUV in adverse conditions or an emergency event. Now, it will be up to the Law Enforcement Driver Training industry to meet the challenges of the very near future.