'I believe simulation and the modern driving education that I had at my high school helped to save my life.' This new driver’s education consists of five elements: simulation, an interactive and engaging curriculum, hazard recognition, parental involvement, and behind-the-wheel training. Joshua’s Law raises traffic violation penalties by 5 percent, providing funding for placement of 'modern' driver’s education in Georgia high schools. Technological distractions from Snapchat to Google Maps are endless, and yet for most high school students across America, driving education hasn’t evolved. There are exponentially more cars on the road. They were using a program created in the early 1950s, Brown says, which is reflective of driving programs nationwide. Out of 416 Georgia high schools at the time, only nine were offering Driver's Ed. Today, there are thousands of simulators in high schools around the state.īefore Joshua’s Law, high schools in Georgia were not providing driver’s education, Brown says. In Pye’s case, it was learning skid control and how to quickly maneuver the steering wheel when things go wrong.įollowing the death of his son and the implementation of Joshua’s Law in 2005 in Georgia, Brown had placed six driving simulators at Cartersville High School, where Pye attended, which was the first high school in the state to receive them. “With simulation, teens can have that same crash over and over until they know exactly what to do.” In Joshua Brown’s case, such training may have meant knowing not to go 40 miles an hour in heavy rain. “Practically nothing” was offered to help train his son deal with these kinds of driving conditions, says the senior Brown, chairman of the Joshua Brown Foundation. Following the death of Alan Brown’s 17-year-old son Joshua in July 2003, he architected and lobbied for a piece of legislation known as “Joshua’s Law.” Brown’s son, Joshua Brown, hydroplaned driving on the highway in the rain at 40 miles per hour and hit a tree. One man from Georgia has been trying to change that for over a decade. Most schools around the country aren’t teaching any driving education, but the ones that do are teaching it based on a several-decades-old model. “Driving on the simulator at my high school taught me to keep calm and think clearly in stressful situations,” he says. Pye credits his good fortune in large part to a driving simulator.

Today, they’re married and have a four-month-old son. Instead, they walked away with only a couple of bruises.

The couple could’ve been among the more than 41,000 people to lose their lives to car crashes in the US that year in 2007. The situation could have played out in many different ways that afternoon. He reacted by turning his wheel toward the guardrail, avoiding the surrounding cars and oncoming traffic. Georgia native Luke Pye was 18 years old, driving with his high school girlfriend on the highway when a van cut him off.

Americas drivers ed modules not working