Friday

Drivers Ed

I feel like today is going to be the bane of my NaNoWriMo days. I have absolutely nothing interesting to say. I guess I'll settle for an entertaining little story about me learning to drive.

In Calgary you can get your learners at 14 years old. I decided I didn't care about driving so I didn't take lessons or anything. I didn't even have my learners until I was 16 or maybe even 17. Finally in grade twelve I decided I should probably get a license. My parents enrolled me in AMA Drivers Ed and off I went to the classroom sessions.

Everything was all fine and good, I made a new friend from California who only ate dried seaweed and sesame seed crackers (true). I forget her name but we had an awesome time drawing posters and diagrams in class.

Then it was time to start the car training. The doorbell rings and I'm expecting this old guy with a mullet or something. Turns out it's this young, really cute guy. My dad called him the Backstreet Boy, as in:

"When's the Backstreet Boy coming for your lessons?"

"What can the Backstreet Boy possibly know about driving? He's barely 18 himself"

Turns out he was 19. His dad was high up in AMA and therefore he got the job (nepotism anyone?) I didn't mind, I thought he was cute. Plus he let me drink coffee in my training. Apparently you aren't supposed to do anything else but drive...boring!

Mostly my lessons were good, he was really random with the driving - for instance one day he said he forgot something at home so we drove to his place to grab whatever it was (I'll never know).

One day as we were just starting our lesson for the day, he had picked me up at school and I was turning left out of the parking lot.

** BAM **

Yup, I hit another car. A minivan to be exact, with a family of Chinese people who spoke absolutely no English whatsoever.

The police were called, the witnesses (my whole school - awesome) gave statements and the damage was eventually tallied.

$8,000 worth of damages to the Driver's Ed car and the van, one unsafe left turn ticket and 2 demerit points later...well seeing as how I had no license to put the points on and no insurance to charge the damage to, AMA had to pay the cost of the whole incident - ticket and everything. This is the only documented accident in all of AMA history for a Drivers Ed course.

I've been in one accident that was my fault in my life and apparently since the Backstreet Boy had his own brake it was technically his fault.

He was fired. I got my license three weeks later.

9 comments:

Kez said...

Haha I guess the whole nepotism thing didn't work for long!
I was in an accident while I was learning but it wasn't my fault. If my instructor hadn't told me to put my handbrake on while waiting at an intersection, we would have been pushed into traffic and killed...
the learners car was too damaged to drive so I had to use my own. I got my license on my second attempt!

paperback reader said...

Sadly, most of the Backstreet Boys would kill for a job teaching drivers these days.

Chele said...

8000 dollars!!! wow that must have been some crash.
It is very cruel of me that I wish you had a picture of this?

P said...

Ha!!! since he didn't deserve the job, justice was therefore served!

Maxie said...

oh i can't believe he got fired! and i pretty much love the nick name :-)

katrocket said...

I would have LOVED Backstreet Boy as a driving instructor. Mine was Agnes - she a 66 year-old chain smoker who fell asleep all the time, but it was kinda cute when she's suddenly wake up and say "are we there yet?"

Mel O said...

Ha ha ha! I love it.

I actually got in an accident while taking my DRIVERS TEST to get my LICENSE! It wasn't my fault and there was absolutely no damage to either car... but apparently they won't let anyone get their license if they get into an accident during their actual test. Imagine that.

LOL...

BeckEye said...

I admit that I love the Backstreet Boys, so I would've loved to have that guy as an instructor.

I seriously just sat here for 10 minutes trying to do a BSB parody involving driving, but I'm blanking.
I don't know which part of that disappoints me more.

slopmaster said...

damn, I hope you can live with that in your concience. You caused someone to get fired!

slop