By Anna Michael
The Cincinnati Enquirer

OXFORD - Orange cones, a wide-open parking lot and teen-agers could only mean one thing - driving school.

But the clinics Saturday in the Talawanda High School parking lot had a certain urgency to them for some students and parents. Many said they attended because of the recent series of four vehicle accidents involving Talawanda students.

Two students, Jason Farthing and Benjamin Reece, were killed.

"After the deaths up here it has really sobered us up," said Jene Krall of Oxford. "It made her realize how dangerous driving was."

Krall's daughter was on the Talawanda school bus that was hit by a drunk driver as it returned from a football game.

Seventeen teens, accompanied by parents or guardian, participated Saturday in two sessions of the New Driver Car Control Clinic, a 6-year-old program designed to teach young drivers about accident avoidance and defensive driving skills. Two more sessions will be held today.

Kathy Schulte of Somerville came with her daughter Nicole.

"I'm here for my daughter. When she gets in a situation (I want her to) have an idea of how to get out of it safely," Schulte said. "Things happen so quickly. I'm hoping she learns to react instead of thinking."

Schulte's daughter Nicole, 16, was hoping to improve her driving skills at the clinic.

"I've had my license three months, and I've already had my first accident," Nicole said.

Instructor David Thompson, 67, of Melbourne Beach, Fla., created the program as a curriculum 10 years ago and began teaching real-life clinics in 1997.

"Originally it was a workbook and a video, but lo and behold, they wanted more personal instruction," Thompson said.

Before the actual driving began, Thompson gave a brief lecture inside the high school to the teenagers, parents and guardians. Each young driver was required to have his or her license or permit and a parent or guardian present.

He told the teens and parents that the automobile is the No. 1 killer of people between the ages of 16 and 19. He said that one in four 16-year-olds crashes a car within the first 12 months of driving.

"It's a myth that kids are wild and crazy. That's only true for some of the kids, some of the time," Thompson said. "There is just a lack of experience. The No. 1 cause of a 16-year-old crashing is driver error."

Thompson does not believe that conventional driver's education teaches young drivers how to handle an emergency.

"Drivers education is based on everyone behaving themselves," Thompson said.