Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Man teaches the art of driving defensively

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Monday, November 8, 1999

Man teaches the art of driving defensively
Instructing is less stressful, more amusing than military, he says
By Venessa Santos
Caller-Times
Staff writer Venessa Santos can be reached at 886-3759 or by e-mail at santosv@caller.com

David Adame/Caller-Times

Bob Miller (right), a Corpus Christi Driver's Education and Safety School instructor, gives a student pointers during class behind the wheel.

Bob Miller
   Age: 51
   Occupation: Driving instructor at Corpus Christi Driver's Education and Safety School
   Quote: "(People) see our signs, they see our stickers, and they do all sorts of crazy things. People speed up and slow down in front of you. Brake unexpectedly. Everything you can think of."
   Driving instructor Bob Miller learned firsthand how scary it can be as a beginning driver.
   At 16 years old, only 14 hours after he received his driver's license, he was hit head-on by another vehicle.
   "I was driving my dad to work about 6 a.m. when a guy in the opposite lane fell asleep at the wheel," Miller said. "He crossed over the yellow line and hit me head-on."
   Miller was in a coma for several days and suffered a broken leg, arm and collar bone. "I never saw the car," he said. The other driver died.
   Miller, 51, says he does not remember much else of that Kentucky morning or the driver that landed him in the hospital for more than a month, forcing him to miss part of his sophomore year of high school.
   "I just got out of the hospital and got on with my life," Miller said, an instructor at Corpus Christi Driver's Education and Safety School.
   And now, 35 years later, that experience helps him relate to the students he teaches to drive. He knows a lot of kids are nervous, and with good reason.
   "People in Corpus Christi have no compassion for new drivers," Miller said.
   Typical day

David Adame/Caller-Times

For the past seven years, driving instructor Bob Miller has taught about 70 students every three weeks. He works seven days a week and rarely takes a day off, he says.

   His day begins with a series of defensive driving courses. Classes are made up of mostly adults hoping to get traffic tickets dismissed.
   "I would say about 90% are there for speeding tickets," Miller said. "The rest are usually for traffic accidents."
   His fledgling drivers don't hear the story of Miller's horrifying first day on the road, but he makes it a point to talk about it in his defensive driving classes. "These are people who are there for wrecks or for speeding," Miller said. "They think they are invisible. I tell them I thought I was, too."
   For the past seven years, Miller has taught about 70 students every three weeks.
   "I work seven days a week, eight hours a day. I rarely take a day off."
   Every day, the retired Navy master chief petty officer braves Corpus Christi traffic with teen-age drivers. But the real problem isn't the driver sitting next to Miller - it's the other cars.
   Driver pranks
   During his instructing years, his students have been mooned, flashed, honked at and cut off more times than he can count.
   "They see our signs, they see our stickers, and they do all sorts of crazy things," Miller said. "People speed up and slow down in front of you. Brake unexpectedly. Everything you can think of."

David Adame/Caller-Times

Instructor Bob Miller, 51, helps a student driver hold the steering wheel during a driver's education class Thursday evening.

   Miller teaches from a van equipped with an extra rear-view mirror and an extra brake pedal on his side.
   He talks to the student drivers in a calm, steady voice, easing each student around Corpus Christi streets, even when he starts feeling the pressure.
   "Do you hear the little panic in my voice when you get too close to the cars?" he asked one student. "Stay away from them," he said, never changing his tone.
   The boy gave a nervous laugh and kept his hands on the wheel.
   Miller kept his foot close to his brake.
   Keeping his cool
   Although there are some moments of excitement in his job, he says it's still less stressful than his military career. He joined the Navy just as Vietnam was heating up and left after the Persian Gulf War.
   The 25-year Navy veteran says his current job is a lot more amusing than military life.

David Adame/Caller-Times

Corpus Christi Driver's Education and Safety School instructor Bob Miller teaches from a van equipped with an extra rear-view mirror and brake pedal on his side.

   "I was sitting at a stop sign with a student and told him to put the car in gear and make a left," Miller said. "He made a right and drove right into someone's yard."
   He rides shotgun to hundreds of new students a year but still manages to stay calm. "There are some you can tell have driven before," he said. "And there are some (that are so bad) you never forget."
   He rarely regrets failing a student and will do it whenever necessary, he said. The final test, he says, is asking whether he would feel comfortable with that student on the road with his family.
   But his instruction is not always welcomed, especially when he's off the clock, he said.
   "My wife wishes I would learn how to stop teaching," Miller said. "She reminds me she has never gotten a ticket when I try and grab the steering wheel."
   Miller says his early experiences with driving are not what motivated him to teach kids to drive. But "maybe subconsciously I was drawn to this (line of work)," he said.

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