Andie Balenger | Daily Press A Michigan State Police trooper watches as a teenage driver backs in and out of designated “garage” spaces during the precision maneuvering portion of the MSP Teenage Defensive Driving Course. This course, which has a one-hour online quiz and four hours of hands-on driving experience, helps prepare new drivers for unexpected scenarios while on the road.

ESCANABA — The Michigan State Police concluded its first U.P. Teenage Defensive Driving program at the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds recently. MSP troopers hosted 10 four-hour sessions for teen drivers, varying in age from 16 to 19, to attend starting Monday, June 27. In a hands-on fashion, the course forced teen drivers to handle and react to dangerous driving scenarios, testing their reaction time while boosting their confidence behind the wheel.

“This course acts as a foundation that these teens are going to be building upon throughout years of driving,” Sergeant Patrick Janisse of the MSP Gladstone Post said. “If they start with this strong foundation, they are going to be better defensive drivers in the future. It would be great if everyone could have this opportunity.”

After selecting a training session to attend, students were given quick demonstrations of the driving tasks they would be required to complete before the end of training. All in the realm of defensive driving, the five topics were: Serpentine, controlled braking, evasive maneuvering, precision maneuvering, and skid control. In order to maintain a controlled setting, all of the students were operating MSP squad cars when completing the course. Before getting behind the wheel, however, the students were required to complete an online course with a passing grade of 70%.

“It’s a hands-on experience, these teens get to operate [a squad car] with a trooper,” Janisse said. “You don’t get that kind of experience elsewhere, especially for teen drivers.”

Teens began the course by completing what MSP referred to as “serpentine,” a straight line of five cones that the drivers had to weave between while going 25 miles per hour. From serpentine, drivers advanced to controlled braking. This section worked to develop a student’s ability to achieve maximum braking while still being able to control the direction of their vehicle. At a high speed, the teens would drive towards a row of cones, brake, and quickly pass around them.

“The teenagers we get through here do very well. I always let them know that ‘Hey, they are just cones. I don’t care if you hit a cone'” Steve Strom, trooper at the MSP Manistique Post, said. “That is why we are here. We are here to learn and have fun, and the teens do both of those things.”

After controlled braking, teen drivers move on to evasive maneuvering. Instead of braking when an object appears in front of their car, evasive maneuvering teaches the students how to safely swerve around an object without slowing. On the other hand, precision maneuvering is the only slow paced section of the defensive driving course, with students learning how to back in and out of designated “garage” spaces with ease.

“When [the teens] start, they will drive slow and they may be shy or nervous,” Strom said. “But by the end, they are trying to drive like me through the course.”

The final section of the defensive driving course was skid control, which showed teens how to maintain control of their vehicle when it interacts with water. MSP had access to a fire hydrant, which they used to wet a stretch of blacktop for the students to glide across. Before completing each section of the course, MSP troopers would pose hypothetical driving scenarios to the teens. After answering how they would handle the situation, the teens were debriefed on the process and goal of the task before running through it nearly 20 times to reach perfection.

“With the teens, from the beginning to about halfway through, it’s like a light switch goes off,” Strom said. “From then, they are like clockwork going through every exercise from there on out.”

While just making it’s debut in the Upper Peninsula, MSP has been hosting the Teenage Defensive Driving Course for the past 20 years at the MSP Training Academy in Lansing. Trooper Lisa Kanyuh of the MSP Gladstone Post, who has directed the program for the past five years, saw an opportunity to bring the event to Escanaba due to the availability of resources needed accommodate the course. Utilizing the vast pads of blacktop and concrete parking lots behind the fairgrounds, which are typically used as driver testing sites, students were able to maneuver through sets of cones at high speeds without fear of accident.

“[Escanaba] is in a central location in the U.P. where all teen drivers can come to learn,” Janisse said. “Instead of traveling, on average, 6 to 8 hours to attend in Lansing, these teens have the opportunity in their own backyard. It has been working out phenomenally.”

The U.P. Teenage Defensive Driving course had 40 teens pre-registered, although walk-ins were accepted as they came along. MSP kept the teen to trooper ratio at 2:1 throughout the course of instruction, ensuring that the dozen available troopers were able to devote their individual attention and expertise to one or two students rather than 20. Many of the teens had a one-on-one experience with a trooper during the training course.

MSP plans to return the Teenage Defensive Driving program next summer.

“This is one of the best experiences ever. Out of everything I have done in my job, this is by far the most rewarding thing,” Strom said. “With this program, we are helping set kids up to be better drivers in the future. I think this program is going to be awesome next year.”