Business aims to instill positive habits in teenage drivers

Although the title "visionary" does not appear on his business card, it is the word Hairth Alkatib uses to describe his role at 405 Drive Smart, a driving instructional school at 4686 Cemetery Road.

Located in Hilliard Square, 405 Drive Smart borrows its name from Interstate 405 in the Los Angeles area. The 72-mile, 12-lane freeway is considered the largest, busiest and most congested freeway in the United States.

Alkatib, 43, is a certified systems engineer, but owing to the rapid success of 405 Drive Smart, he has turned more attention to the driving school.

Setting itself even further apart, the facility also provides academic tutoring. Parents can choose from a variety of tutoring packages, including one that provides a free laptop computer. A battery of pre-tests helps determine an appropriate level of tutoring.
Alkatib and his wife acquired the Tutoring Club from its previous owner in January and continued its tutoring programs. It took eight weeks for Alkatib to receive accreditation from Ohio to operate as a driving school. Driving classes at the school began in April, along with the name change to reflect its focus on driving instruction.

"I don't think the standards (for teaching adolescents to drive) are high enough," Alkatib said. "I wanted to raise those standards."

The inspiration to do so stems from two accidents his son, Sharif, had within a year of obtaining his driver's license.

While a student at Hilliard Davidson High School, Sharif was driving his parent's minivan to tennis practice. He lost control of the vehicle in a curve on Wilcox Road, just north of Hayden Run Road, and went off the side of the road.

"If he had been going the speed limit (45 mph), police said the van would have flipped," said Alkatib, whose son was driving about 35 mph at the time of the accident.

About a year later, while driving south on Davidson Road near Avery Road, his son struck the back of another vehicle causing minor damage.

"He was looking at his iPod and not paying attention," Alkatib said.

The slightly damaged grill from that vehicle is on display at the driving school.

"My mission is to change the attitude of teenagers ... (and) to create a set of positive habits for each of them," Alkatib said.

Discounting driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, factors that cause the most serious and fatal accidents include using cell phones, particularly text messaging, and fatigue.

"If I find a student is sleepy or not paying attention in class, I make the student leave and make up the class later," he said.

What almost every other driving school lacks, Alkatib said, is "tactical training," such as how to pull out of a skid or prevent over steering.

"My son lacked tactical training," he said.

Typical driving schools provide classroom instruction, identification of road signs, knowledge of the rules of the road and how to safely change lanes and parallel park, but they do not teach a young driver how to best react to an emergency on the road, Alkatib said.

To that end, Alkatib encourages all his students to complete the Honda Teen Defensive Driving Program at the Mid-Ohio School in Lexington.

Although not a requirement to obtain an operator's license in Ohio, many 405 Drive Smart students enroll in the course. There, students execute hands-on activities and drive a "skid car," a Honda Accord equipped with what amounts to oversized training wheels to prevent the car from flipping during purposeful skidding.

Alkatib forged a working relationship with Mid-Ohio School and is attempting to enroll enough students to lure Mid-Ohio School to teach the class in Central Ohio, both at the Hilliard location and at a second classroom he plans to open at a Mercedes dealership in Dublin.

As a further incentive to encourage students to enroll in the school, Alkatib is offering a chance for tuition reimbursement for 15-year-old students who complete classes at 405 Drive Smart and the Mid-Ohio school in 2008. After obtaining a license on or before a 16th birthday, and receiving no moving violations of any kind before a 21st birthday, 405 Drive Smart will reimburse the driver's tuition.

Jayrd Botha, 16, a junior at Hilliard Davidson High School, recently completed the defensive driving course at Mid-Ohio School and expects to have his license in four weeks.

"It was a great experience. The classes (at Mid-Ohio School) taught me how to act in a car, not just drive, and I think that is quite helpful," he said.

His mother, Zoe Botha, said she has seen improvements since the times she let her son drive the family car on rural roads in Scotland, where his family most recently resided before moving to Hilliard.

"He is more focused on what he is supposed to do," she said.

Among other things that set apart his school is the use of cameras in all the student vehicles and plans to obtain three "Virtual Driver Interactive" stations, Alkatib said.

The stations are a civilian version of Department of Defense technology that recreates any weather condition and other road dangers in a virtual environment.

"I want to produce a safe driver who is a beacon of light for other teenagers ... (and) who will be an advocate for other teens (to drive safely)," Alkatib said.

--Hairth Alkatib