Last year, more than 5,000 teenagers died in motor vehicle crashes , the leading killer of American youths aged 16 to 19, accounting for more than 40 percent of fatalities in that age bracket. To reduce teen motor vehicle deaths the BMW Foundation developed Tire Rack Street Survival, a non-profit, national driver education program aimed at teaching teens the skills they need to stay alive behind the wheel. In our area, the Philly Region of the Sports Car Club of America and the Delaware Valley BMW Car Club of America have run Tire Rack Street Survival events with the help of many Riesentöter instructors. This year with the support of PCA National, the Riesentöter Region is formally supporting the program with the intention of sponsoring our own schools.

Tire Rack Street Survival schools teach “hands-on” driving experience in real-world situations. Teens drive their own cars on a course laid out with traffic cones in a parking lot under the supervision of an instructor sitting in the passenger seat. The students learn what it feels like to drive at the limit in carefully designed exercises at low speeds to induce control issues, and learn to recover control. The speeds may be low, and there are only plastic cones to contact, but the driving challenges are real, and real world.

In addition to the on course exercises the teens participate in classroom sessions where they discuss driving safety and best practices with instructors well versed in the theory and physics of car control. The students will become more observant of traffic situations. They will learn to look far enough ahead to anticipate unwise actions of other drivers. As the students master the application of physics to drive their cars, they will make fewer unwise driving actions themselves. They will understand why they should always wear their own seat-belts, and why they should insist that their passengers wear seat-belts, too!

The death toll for 16- and 17-year-old drivers of passenger vehicles jumped 19 percent in the first half of 2012, compared with the first half of 2011. If the trend persists, it would be the second year of increased deaths for teenage drivers in this age group after eight consecutive years of decline. Participating in the Tire Rack Street Survival program is a great way for Riesentöter’s cadre of experienced and trained Driver Education instructors to help our community. Many have already done so with the BMW and SCCA clubs, and are now doing so with our club. There are other roles, however, that we need to fill in order to position our club to sponsor more Tire Rack Street Survival schools.

What can you do?

If you are a DE instructor, please volunteer to instruct. The first school will be held on Saturday, 13 April, at Warminster Community Park in Warminster, PA. Thirty-five students are already signed up. You can sign up to instruct on MotorsportReg.com

If you are not a DE instructor, we can use your help to staff the event. You can sign up as a staff volunteer on MotorsportReg.com

If you are interested in administering Riesentöter’s support for Tire Rack Street Survival schools generally, please let Chris Karras know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We need volunteers to reach out to schools and parents to attract students, encourage instructors to volunteer, locate suitable venues, coordinate with local news media and handle many other aspects of running a school program.

PCA national and the Riesentöter Executive Board are committed to sponsoring Street Survival schools. It is a great program that truly benefits the community and helps save lives. We hope you can donate your time to the program. You can read more about the program or have a student register at StreetSurvival.org