PERRYSBURG, Ohio — There were 290 fatal teen-related crashes in Ohio in 2022 and people under 24 years old accounted for 31% of all crashes across the state, according to the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
As crash rates continue to rise, educators say they're looking to change the statistics and say it all begins before students get on the road.
Dayton-based Professional Driving Systems hosted free classes over the weekend at Owens Community College for students to practice hands-on crash avoidance techniques.
The partnership between PDS, the Ohio Department of Public Safety and the Ohio Traffic Office first began as an initiative from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's office.
Each class is six-and-a-half hours and includes time in the classroom and for students to practice driving on a closed course.
From skid correction to ABS braking drills and straight line breaking exercises, the class focuses on evasive maneuvers students can use in emergencies.
"When you see how many teen drivers are killed every year, you have to think that so many of those are preventable. We don't call them accidents or crashes or collisions. They happen for a purpose, they happen for a reason," said PDS owner Jeff Caldwell.
Theresa Rogers brought her daughter, Callie, from Columbus to the course and said it gave her comfort the next time her daughter gets behind the wheel.
"It makes me feel a lot better, especially about situations here in Ohio that we might have like black ice or your car starts to skid when you brake the wrong way, things that she can't necessarily control as a new driver," Theresa said.
"I think it gives them experience before they have an accident or before a situation. It's going to give them a lot more knowledge than they would gain from just doing driver's ed," she added.
learning both inside and outside of the classroom is also valuable, Callie said.
"If you don't learn how to do it when you're actually in the situation, you can endanger yourself and also other people. So it's best to know how to prepare yourself for the situation before you actually have to face it," she said.
Caldwell said the ultimate goal of the classes is to save teens' lives by giving them the tools they need to know what to do on the road.
"Our goal at Professional Driving Systems is to save teenagers' lives and we find that by giving them more skills, we believe that we're affecting the crash rates that the teens have because now they understand the car a little more, they understand the dynamics, they know, 'I shouldn't do this, because I know this will happen if I do it," Caldwell said.