Remedial

Statistics show that when a person is charged with a driving offense, they have likely done it 80 times.

There is a reason habits are developed. Our courses examine what is behind those habits and how they can be changed.

Charged with Impaired Driving, Stunt, Road Rage or Driving on a Suspended License? Is the MTO requiring you to take a Defensive Driving Course (DDC) or Driver Improvement Course (DIC)? We offer 1-day educational courses that are approved by lawyers, Crown Attorneys, the courts and the MTO. Courses are provided on request.

IT’S HARD TO STOP SOMETHING THAT ALMOST WORKS.
Dr. Vincent Felitti

Some takeaways from our courses:

1. Genetics, socialization, and role models are extremely powerful influencers and have a much greater influence on who we have become than we may want to give credit. The notion of “do as I say and not do as I do” does not work. Having had an alcoholic parent, I know full well that we tend to copy the behaviour of our role models until such time we are motivated to obtain different results. This requires being intentional and learning how to change our behaviours. This requires the right kind of work.
2. Some models of addiction say to quit our maladaptive behaviours or bad habits cold turkey. For those few that can quit cold turkey, I still advocate that you do the work to find the triggers that caused the maladaptive behaviours in the first place. Life can be long with a lot of emotional highs and lows; we need to have the foundation and tools and strategies in place to weather them.
3. Sometimes tough, values-based decisions need to be made to change our maladaptive habits. If you do not want to repeat the same mistakes, sometimes we must change the environment, or at least the set of circumstances, that led up to the incident that got us in trouble. Sometimes this means choosing better friends. Sometimes it means changing jobs-we repeatedly see how a stressful commute time contributes to high stress loads in people’s lives. I speak from experience as I have lived and worked downtown Toronto and chose to change careers because of a 1.5-hour commute.
4. Defensive driving habits are crucial in helping us stay safe on the roads. My golden rule for safe driving is a good following distance. The majority of crashes are bumper to bumper as a result of following too closely. I truly appreciated the value of following distance while teaching thousands of beginner drivers. And we can all relate to turning on the news after the summer when the first slippery precipitation happens i.e., snow, sleet, etc. I can almost guarantee you will hear about a pile up of cars in the GTA/401. We have all become accustomed to summer conditions when the roads are less busy, roads are dry, and sunlight hours are greater. Most people are following too closely and so when a variable comes into play such as having to brake suddenly on now slippery roads, the inevitable happens. Our defensive driver training component consists of 4 golden rules such as this and are included in every course.