The tragedies and ironies of life can produce some of the brightest light. Doug Herbert, a longtime and winning drag racer, has lived that.
After a heartbreaking car crash claimed the lives of his sons, John and James, Herbert set out to make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else in his circle. His B.R.A.K.E.S. teen driving safety courses have now run for 18 years and have become as much, if not more, a part of his legacy as driving 300 mph has been.
In January 2008, as Herbert’s driving career was in its twilight, his real life veered well off course.
“John was being a 17-year-old driving too fast, being reckless and lost control of the car and both him and James lost their [lives],” Herbert recalled as he has hundreds of times since then. “That’s what B.R.A.K.E.S. was founded on — trying to make sense of that and trying to make sure that another parent doesn’t get that call that I got — that their teenagers or their kids, you know, their children aren’t coming home.”
The North Carolina-based nonprofit organization’s acronym stands for “Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe,” and its meaning encompasses not only the teen drivers’ and passengers’ safety, but also that of innocent bystanders.
Herbert started with a behind-the-wheel driving course for 50 teens, mainly friends of his sons. The classes have now educated some 165,000 teens and parents during stops all over the country. B.R.A.K.E.S. pulls up June 13 and 14 at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton.
Herbert insists this is no ordinary, classroom-based driver’s ed class and urges parents to join their kids, too. Both the teens and the adults get a tune up on life-saving skills and crash avoidance.
“We’ve got a distracted driving (lesson) which obviously is a huge problem, panic-braking and anti-lock braking activation. Drop-wheel recovery — which is one of the largest causes of fatalities in rural areas, where you drop a wheel off the side of the road and then overcorrect. You either roll into a ditch or you go across (and) hit oncoming traffic.” Herbert explained.
He said Kia provides the vehicles, and the program outfits its multipronged courses with instructors. It’s a major operation. And it’s free.
Herbert said they make registrants leave a $99 down payment to help assure their arrival. Then they can choose to donate the money to B.R.A.K.E.S. or have it refunded. Asking someone to pay up front, he explained, makes them far more likely to come to class and not take up a spot that someone else wants.
As of a few days ago, there are slots available at the EchoPark Speedway class.
Herbert said his team commissioned a five-year study to compare teen drivers who took B.R.A.K.E.S. classes to those who did not. Those who took the class were 64% less likely to be in a crash, Herbert said.
He has channeled his loss into gain for others, just as the Lutzenkirchen family has done with the Lutzie 43 Foundation and the Bebiak family has with Road Ready Foundation.
A 2025 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said crashes are the leading cause of avoidable deaths for U.S. teenagers. The key term here is “avoidable.” There are no foolproof safety guarantees, but parents should prioritize investing time in some sort of hands-on driving course.
The benefits are glaring, and no one wants to get the calls that the Herbert, Lutzenkirchen and Bebiak families — and so many others — have gotten.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.
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