NHRA drag racer Doug Herbert has had a life of firsts. He holds 10 NHRA and 20 IHRA national championship event wins, holds four Top Fuel world championship wins, and was the first driver to make a pass at over 300 mph in an NHRA elimination round. One thing that hes not first in, is losing a child to car accident. According to a TeenSafe.com report from February, 2018, nearly 3,000 teens were killed in car accidents in 2016. Staggering numbers like this are why Doug puts so much time and effort into his driving program. For more than a decade, his mission has been to bring awareness to and teach real-world defensive driving techniques to teens across the United States. This passion project, named B.R.A.K.E.S., was born of Dougs own tragedy: the loss of his two sons, Jon and James, in a fatal car accident eleven years ago. Doug was able to translate his emotions into action by stepping away from a highly-successful racing career and focus on helping the nations youth by providing defensive driving education. The timing was right for me to back off from my business and from racing and focus on something different says Doug. The first group to complete the program were classmates and friends of Dougs sons. They came up with the name B.R.A.K.E.S., which stands for Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe. It was kind of therapy for me to teach these kids some skills that could save their life, Doug adds. The curriculum for B.R.A.K.E.S. is structured to simulate real-world scenarios and teach the proper driving techniques to not only anticipate a bad situation, but safely avoid one. Working with law-enforcement personnel and researching stats on what the main causes for these fatal crashes were, five categories of skills were selected. Students are instructed on collision avoidance, dropped wheel/off-road recovery, driving distracted, panic stopping, and car control/skid recovery. Additionally, because BRAKES seminars travel the country, the education is tailored for the region to maximize teens abilities where they live based on common driving conditions. In southern California, its a refrigerator falling off the back of a truck, and in Kansas, its a loaded combine headed down the road, Doug jokes. More than a decade since his sons passing, Doug has grown B.R.A.K.E.S. into a premier defensive driving program with world-class instructors of various disciplines, from Hollywood stunt driving to law enforcement and racing. With the help of sponsors, BRAKES is able to hold classes free of charge so that all participants and their parents get a quality, behind-the-wheel-education that extends far beyond the basics provided in Drivers Ed. The fact is, I could sit there and be sad and cry, which I do once in a while, but I try to focus on how lucky I was to be their [Jon and James] dad. We couldnt help but ask if there was a chance that Doug would get back in the drivers seat of a race car again. Im still working on my Bonneville car, and hopefully next summer, well be able to run that, he replied. You can look for more of that developing story in the coming months right here on HotRod.com. For all of the details and schedule for the class nearest you head to the BRAKES website. The post NHRA Legend Doug Herbert Teaches Defensive Driving to Teens for Free! appeared first on Hot Rod Network .