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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Skid Row: Head instructor Scot Smithee demonstrates how the skid car skids at much lower speeds than normal in order to teach the police cadets how to safely handle dangerous situations.
Driving Miss Crazy
Police cadets-and one intrepid reporter- learn science of high-speed pursuit driving
By Jessica Lyons
"Faster, faster, faster!" screams Sgt. Lanette Williams, a San Jose police officer and an instructor for the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium's police academy. I stomp on the accelerator and speed toward an orange plastic cone. The white '99 Crown Victoria I'm driving hurtles closer and closer to the immobile cone, the TV crews and a dozen or so police cadets.
It's the 15th week of the academy's 20-week training program. All 13 police cadets have had eight hours of lecture and 16 hours of behind-the-wheel training.
I barely passed my California driver's license test four months ago, and just last week I got a speeding ticket driving down Interstate 5.
"Now STOP!" Williams yells, signaling that it's time to test the anti-lock brakes.
I slam my sneaker onto the brake pad, and the car pulses to a stop. I'm impressed. I wonder if my Jetta would handle this well.
For my second braking test, I have to follow a similar routine; speed up and slam on the brakes, but this time, I'm supposed to change lanes. Williams instructs me to make a sharp turn to the left as I'm braking.
I don't do so well this time. The brakes and the steering wheel work, but I hit two cones.
"Stop the car, and I'll go pick up the two kids you just ran over," she barks.
I should have aimed for the snotty TV reporters instead.
The cadets have already completed the low-speed driving exercises, including parallel parking, backing up and vehicle positioning. Today they are learning collision avoidance. During the driving lecture part of the academy, the cadets learned that peripheral vision is diminished at high speeds. Shorter braking distances, pumping adrenaline and limited reaction time lead to tunnel vision--and accidents.
Fifty-two percent of high-speed police pursuits that last two minutes or less end with a bang. When the length of the car chase goes up to four minutes, the likelihood of an accident increases to 73 percent. That percentage only gets higher as the pursuit length gets longer. That's why the police cadets and I are racing around Moffett Field on a cloudy Wednesday morning. We're learning controlled speed--how to handle the car in chases and high-speed skids ("chasing the bad guy like in real life," instructor Scot Smithee says). Or the cadets are learning, anyway. I'm just along for the ride and, as I am repeatedly reminded by police officers and academy instructors, as a witness that "in a pursuit, the safety of the public is foremost in our minds."
In other areas of Moffett Field, a police car, lights flashing and siren howling, chases another car through a maze of cones, curves and stop signs. A "skid-car"--a patrol vehicle mounted onto a hydraulic frame, used to simulate high-speed skids--turns doughnuts while reporters with cameras and tape-recorders lean out the windows to try to pick up the screeching noises. A third car speeds down a cone-lined alley narrowly missing the cones.
"This is the fun part of the academy," says academy coordinator Tom Mazzone. Mazzone, a retired SJPD officer and Willow Glen High School alum, sees about 300 students annually come through the academy.
"It's all about using judgment: when to pursue, when not to pursue and when to terminate a pursuit," Mazzone says. "Out here, the cadets can explore the limits of the car, find out what [it's like to drive at] one hundred percent. In a pursuit situation, we want them driving eighty percent."
Next, I take a spin in the skid car--literally. The wheeled spidery frame lifts the weight off the patrol car's tires, simulating speed, or slick driving conditions. While we're actually only driving 30 mph, the car skids around the corner like we're going 60 mph.
Later in the afternoon, the cadets will be tested in the skid car. The student will sit in the driver's seat, and instructor Smithee will sit in the passenger's seat, adjusting the road conditions and car speed with a hand-held remote. The cadet's job is to regain control of the sliding vehicle.
"In the skid car, we test breaking control, panic stop situations, under-steer skids--the more deadly kind--and over-steer skids, the more traditional skid where the back of the car slides out," Smithee says. "The object for the recruit is to keep it under control."
For the grand finale, Smithee wheels the car into a 360-degree rotation. He pulls the car out of it and speeds off down the runway. I'm nauseous for about two hours afterwards. I've learned the secrets of high-speed driving, but I don't intend to try turning doughnuts in my Jetta.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
