PAGE A2, WHITBY FREE PRESe, DURHAM1 MOVES, FEBRUARY 17, 1988 OnIy $9,797* BEAUTY de AND, THE BEAST FROM' 1 le% A TA PCZ ;IVTRA Whitby ofc for drivii For most of his working life, Mode, fuly Doug Stevenson has been involved Moden, flly wlth some form of transportation. q computerized But it's cars, or more preclsely, auto service how to properly drive themn, that, have kept bis business rolling for the past 19 years. Doug, wife Cathy and daughter Dawn only just opened a Witby of- 4And we'II fice for their Oshawa Driving drive you to School. homneor ."We moved to Whitby.because of office the growth and because we had a JUST DIAL lot of Whitby clients. We juqst kept getting more and more," says / ARIDE! Stevenson. . The driving school, which now has eight instructors, has been CF RTnIED teacbing high school students from -7-AT -C the Northumberland and Durham public school boards for 15 years as well as Dwyer separate high school mon" students for about seven years. That works out to about 100 high KINGST.E 103DUNDAS T. E;ýachool students per instructor each Oshawayear, while private lessons account THR1 u 11ETR l for some 150 to 200 people more 50 K T 3-00 eacb year. One of the Oshawa Driving School instructors, Harvey Hall of Hampton, bas been teachixig for 12 years. Stevenson notes that the insuran- ce reduction program is flot just for high school students 'who takre driving lessons, but for all ages. But be explains that the reduction is 40 per cent off what -the extra charge is for a first-year driver -not 40 per cent off the basic migschool and, as a.hobby, Degan.teacing frienids to drive, i theeëarly O's.' "The I thoughtI mlght as .l'ge paid for it," he recalis, so isrc tion became a part-tlme business. He came toCanada in 1966, and worked for Canadian National'as. an electrician for five years. While working there,. he and Cathy star- ted the County Drivlng School in 1969, incorporating the name in 1978. In 1983, they bought the Oshawa Driving School whlch had been operating since the 1950's, and kept the popular name. In 'almost 20 years, he can remember only "haif a dozen" people who have falled the drlvingý course, "Theéy just didn't make it. It's flot a matter of intelligence, it's just they don't have the mechanics or they can't coordinate well enough. It can happen. " He recails one student, a middle- aged woman, who would say -a prayer before she entered the car at each lesson. At first, says, Stevenson, it was unnerving, "But after a while, I got used to it. " IThen on 'the day of the test, she was kneeling beside the car and saying her prayer. - "She did okay. She did survive." Most memorable of ail, however, was the worst case he had ever seen of a type of driver he describes as a Such cases are rare, he says, but do occur -the driver who, because of "«some perception thing," will unconsciously steer toward pedestrians although they want to avoid them. Stevenson says his worst case was a student who "If someone walked across in front of her, she'd go right after them. She'd even go up oni the sidewalk after them. "If I didn't have a hand brake, we'd be minus a few pedestrians."ý But you just keep'telling them and telling them, and eventually they and LT 1). 155 King St. W. Oshawa Call 579-6224 or 579-6243 SUE3À&RU,,, me car mat gSs to éVreines. 1