David Thompson, championship-winning racing driver and automotive journalist, developed the New Driver Car Control Clinic curriculum in 1993. He is the Clinic founder and author of New Driver Car Control: From Kamikaze to Competent and The Road Map. Teaching many of the car control techniques used by professional drivers, Thompson's program enables students to actually test their reactions to real-life emergencies behind the wheel. This is the type of valuable training they almost never get in traditional driver education courses.

The Advanced Car Control Techniques program for corporate and fleet drivers and The New Driver Car Control Clinic for parents and teens have been delivered in 10 states and Mexico. In 2004 a statistical analysis of the driving performance of New Driver Car Control graduates to the general population was conducted by the Florida Department of Highway Safety showing a 77% reduction in crashes. The results of this study can be found at www.carcontrol.com/FL-DHSMV.htm.

Thompson is frequently cited as an expert source in such notable publications as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Ladies Home Journal and various national magazines. Since 1993 Thompson has trained driver ed instructors in Connecticut, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee. The Clinic has received the support of SafeTeen, The Safe America Foundation, the National Safety Council-South Florida Chapter, The Florida Safety Council, AAA-Carolinas, many chapters of the Sports Car Club of America and several school districts throughout the country.

Auto Testers, Inc., the parent company of Advanced Car Control Techniques®, was formed in 1993 for the purpose of pursuing several auto-related ventures including consumer services, editorial products and training products related to the automobile. One of these programs involved the creation of a weekly column on life with the automobile for the daily newspaper in Raleigh, NC, The News & Observer.

During Thompson’s search for editorial opportunities he began to examine the history of and current state of driver’s education around the world. As a lifetime auto enthusiast and successful racer, Thompson knew that the techniques used to develop driving skills in competition and emergency environments was very different from those used in the typical high school driver ed course or commercial driving school. Shortly after he developed an outline for a book proposal entitled, “The Kamikazes, Drivers Without Driver Training,” a treatise on the decline and inadequacy of the driver education system in the US, his editors asked if he would suggest a program of public service related to the automobile that the paper could sponsor.

Thompson decided to shelve the book proposal and develop an improved curriculum for driver training. Drawing on his understanding that, particularly in emergency situations, the driver’s initial response is often the split-second difference between avoiding a crash or experiencing the disaster of a serious crash. He further understood that this reaction was fundamentally based on the psychomotor skills of the driver -- skills that allow a semi-automatic response to sudden changes in circumstances much like the high-speed mental/physical response of a finely trained athlete or musician. And finally, he observed that traditional driver education simply did not address this basic factor for new drivers, relying almost totally on attitudinal factors, behavioral factors and so-called decision making to avoid risk. But none of these develop emergency response techniques such as those taught to police, fire and ambulance drivers.

After three years of research, development and testing, Advanced Car Control Techniques presented the first New Driver Car Control Clinic ® in Charlotte, NC, with the assistance of the Carolina AAA Club and sponsorship of SAAB cars, USA.

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