Three Generations Of Expertise

Drives Knepler’s Commitment To Safety

By John Voket

“A car is a loaded handgun,” observed Howard Knepler, who represents the third generation of driving experts and instructors who have sustained the Knepler Driving School name and its 56-year tradition of excellence.

Referring to his handgun analogy, Howard Knepler told The Newtown Bee he continues to be shocked and surprised at how many parents of young drivers either shop for driving instruction based on the lowest price, a school that teaches to the driving test, or schools that strive to get the fledgling driver licensed and out on the road fast.

“You would think that if it was a gun, they would want their child to be able to handle it safely and successfully. But you can’t always blame the parents. Sometimes they just cave in to all the nagging from a child who is anxious to get a driver’s license,” he said. “But there are as many parents who are too busy, or sadly, who just don’t bother to learn the difference between a good and bad driving school, so they just don’t care.”

Since there is no state mandated requirement for uniform curriculum in driver’s education in Connecticut, Howard Knepler says he is sensitive to those who come to the Knepler Driving School after having a crash — especially if they have already been through driver training.

“I get phone calls from new drivers who are very fearful because they’ve had a crash or a near miss,” he said. “Right now, I’m enrolling about two people per week who already went to other driving schools, and they don’t understand why they got into a crash.”

Howard’s father Gary, along with Grandfather Simon Knepler have all put in enough time behind the dual controls of their student driving vehicles to know there are some things that affect a driver’s ability to operate a vehicle safely that are universal, and timeless.

Today, Gary Knepler said the combination of lighter weight vehicles with high performance engines, the availability of electronic devices that often distract a driver, the demands on young drivers that may contribute to them being overtired and drowsy, and the increased use of prescription and illegal drugs or alcohol all add up to higher risks for inexperienced drivers.

“Sure, there are more safety features like crumple zones and airbags, as well as laws that cause more people to wear their seat belts, but they don’t outweigh these factors,” Gary Knepler said. He added that today, there are more cars on the road than ever before, and more of those cars are owned by the youths who drive them.

Free Wheeling Hazards

Until more recently, Gary Knepler pointed out that young people used to drive their parent’s vehicle, so there was more accountability and supervision. But today, many teens and young adults have free reign to go wherever that want in a vehicle, whenever and with whomever they want — which can be a recipe for disaster, as Connecticut has seen in recent years with numerous traffic tragedies involving multiple fatality wrecks.

“That’s why we don’t teach to pass the test; we teach to the state of the world our students are driving in,” Gary Knepler said. He said that even when teens wait until they are 18 or 19 to get a license, they still comprise a statistically more dangerous driving demographic.

The Knepler family may work so hard to impart their best practices on every student because the family knows first-hand the tragedy of losing someone in a traffic collision, Howard Knepler explained, having lost an uncle in a motor vehicle crash many years ago.

As a former special education teacher, Gary Knepler knows that cognitive functioning is not fully developed until an individual is at least 25 years old. That means most drivers cannot fully engage both cognitive and perceptual functions, which means they do not prioritize risk accordingly, making them more statistically prone to collisions.

So the Knepler family works to compensate for these and other age-related or disability-related drawbacks by mixing their extensive classroom experience with on the road training, versus completing the classroom portion of training first, and then moving the student behind the wheel at the end.

The Knepler method also leans heavily on, and derives its greatest successes from, a cooperative arrangement where parents not only provide many hours of supervised and supplemental practice, but also who sit in on classes or participate in one-on-one coaching in the Knepler headquarters in Monroe.

“Any good driver’s ed program succeeds on a good partnership,” Gary Knepler said. “And the student enjoys the best learning experience by integrating both theory and practice with our instructors and their parents.”

This is not to say that the Kneplers advocate for parents to take on training a new driver on their own.

“Just the opposite,” Gary Knepler said. “A parent teaching a child to drive should be viewed similarly as a parent acting as that child’s attorney in a legal matter, of self-doctoring. They are not licensed professionals so the outcome will likely be the same as they might expect if they did any kind of work themselves instead of a licensed professional.”

Open Class Concept

To help make successfully completing driver’s training as easy as possible on busy students and families, the Knepler Driving School has an open class concept where programming is taught in five-week cycles permitting students to schedule every class they need with maximum flexibility.

The school is also recognized nationally and internationally for its role in promoting safe driving, and Gary Knepler has been invited to participate in driving studies or to lecture on driving safety in New Zealand, Australia, China, Russia, Hungary, Great Britain, and Israel.

The Knepler Driving School is also the only driving school in Connecticut that is certified for special needs populations and to conduct medically coordinated driving evaluations by the National Association For Driver Rehabilitation Specialists. And the family operates diagnostic driving centers here in Connecticut as well as in Boca Raton, Fla.

Gary Knepler has been contracted to help support driver training to various corporations as well as with police departments and other emergency response drivers. He is a past president and the longest serving member of the state’s Driver Safety Education Association, and former chair of the national association.

About a year ago, Gary Knepler also became the first Connecticut driving school operator to be recognized for his contributions with a proclamation from the state legislature, and he oversees a foundation that helps qualified students with financial assistance in certain situations.

To learn more, call 203-268-6040, view garykneplerdrivingschool.com, or visit the company’s headquarters at 388 Main Street (Route 25) in Monroe.