Buzz
Driver’s education originated in the United Kingdom as a commercial enterprise in 1909. A quarter-century later, the first high school driver’s education program was launched in the United States, providing students with both theoretical knowledge and practical driving experience.
Over the years, these programs, especially in America, have faced challenges such as unethical instructors, panicked students, and countless aggressive drivers. The next 10 entries delve into some of the most unusual and disastrous driving lessons and license tests that went terribly wrong.
10. Traffic Jams and Broken Elbows
Driving instructors are required to exhibit immense patience when handling reckless teenagers and vengeful, irrational drivers. Unfortunately, 64-year-old Chris Barnett’s appeals for calm were completely ignored.
In 2015, while navigating heavy traffic in Braintree, Essex, Barnett’s student panicked at an intersection, leading to a brief traffic hold-up. Within just 20 seconds, two agitated men in a Range Rover pulled up beside Barnett, hurling a barrage of profanities.
Despite Barnett repeatedly warning the pair that they were being filmed, the enraged driver stepped out of his car to confront Barnett through the open passenger window. Not wanting to miss out, the driver’s eccentric companion also jumped into the fray.
Attempting to calm the situation, Barnett opened the car door, only to have it forcefully slammed onto his arm. The assailants then fled as quickly as they had arrived. Barnett, who described this as “the worst road rage incident of his career,” was lucky to escape with only a fractured elbow.
9. French Inhale
Impairing one’s senses before a driving test is an incredibly reckless decision, especially when the person promoting such behavior is responsible for the safety of their students. In 2015, Eric Robertson, the owner and instructor of Drive Tech in Albuquerque, advised his 15-year-old student, who was feeling anxious, to drive to his home during a lesson to consume marijuana.
When the confused teenager declined, Robertson escalated his inappropriate behavior during the next lesson by taking her behind a building and asking if she had ever tried “French inhaling.” He then lit a joint and blew smoke into her mouth while kissing her.
Robertson’s disturbing actions led to his swift arrest, with charges including child abuse and providing drugs to a minor. During the trial, his extensive history of speeding violations was revealed, prompting the judge to order him to attend a driver’s education course. This raised questions about how he was allowed to run a driving school despite his numerous traffic offenses.
Parents were further outraged when they discovered that Robertson’s driving school had shut down without issuing refunds or prior notice. One parent, who had paid $350 to Drive Tech, expressed frustration, stating, “We came yesterday and found the place closed with no explanation. We’ve tried calling, but no one answers. I don’t know what to do or who to contact.”
8. History of Misconduct
In 2011, Dan Correll, a driver’s education teacher in Iowa’s Mercer County School District, was dismissed after multiple complaints about his unusual conduct. Between 2009 and 2011, he was repeatedly reported for dozing off during classroom sessions and while supervising student driving lessons. Correll also faced allegations of making “inappropriate and unwelcome remarks” to female staff and behaving inappropriately toward his students.
Five years later, Iowa faced another scandal involving a corrupt driver’s license examiner at the Department of Transportation. During a driving test, 62-year-old John Alexander directed a 49-year-old woman to park in a lot, where he handed her his phone and asked her to view explicit images of himself.
Despite Alexander’s threats to stay silent, the woman reported the incident to the police within 30 minutes and later sued the Iowa Department of Transportation.
7. Peak Incompetence
Driving tests are often stressful, but few would anticipate that anxiety escalating into road rage, particularly from a student who hasn’t even earned a permanent license. It’s even more absurd when that rage is directed at their female instructor.
In a shocking 2013 incident at the BMV testing site in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, a furious 21-year-old woman nearly caused severe harm to her driving instructor. The situation unfolded after the student struck a cone during her driving test, resulting in an automatic failure.
Frustrated by her mistake, the student lashed out at her instructor, demanding, “Why didn’t you tell me what I was doing? Where else can I take my test?” After enduring several minutes of this outburst, the instructor exited the vehicle and headed toward the BMV building.
In a fit of anger, the student suddenly accelerated, driving straight toward her instructor. Fortunately, the instructor leaped out of the way just in time, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic collision. The enraged student then fled the scene.
6. Late-Night Assault
In 2016, during his last driving lesson, 16-year-old Dominic Elliott noticed a car trailing them for an extended period. Concerned by the late hour, his instructor, Robert Ross, instructed Elliott to perform a U-turn at the light.
To their shock, the vehicle behind them was a police patrol car. The officer activated the emergency lights after the turn, and six deputies quickly arrived, weapons drawn. Despite Ross repeatedly explaining that Elliott was a student driver, the teenager was forcefully thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and sustained serious injuries to his right arm.
After placing Elliott in the patrol car, the deputies realized he was a minor with no criminal record or warrants and released him. A lawsuit filed against Drive America school claimed the company endangered Elliott by using a training car with a faulty license plate, leading police to mistakenly believe it was stolen.
Elliott’s parents also sued the sheriff’s office for unspecified damages, citing nerve damage, severe pain, swelling, and skin discoloration their son endured. Nearly a year later, Elliott regained the confidence to drive again and successfully obtained his license.
5. One More for the Road
In 2017, staff at Joliet Central High School were alarmed to find the school’s driver’s education instructor, 46-year-old Nestor M. Nowak, “slumped over the wheel” near the main entrance around 11:00 AM. Assuming he had suffered a stroke, they immediately called for an ambulance.
However, it was revealed that the drowsy instructor had a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit. Court documents showed that Nowak had 13 prior traffic violations, including a DUI conviction three years earlier.
In a separate 2017 incident, a 57-year-old driving instructor in Germany was arrested after failing to prevent a crash due to his intoxication. His impaired state caused a 17-year-old student driver to collide with a house.
One of the most astonishing drinking-related incidents took place in 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa. A driving instructor, operating a school vehicle, was found with a blood alcohol level 12 times over the legal limit. Rather than meeting his student at the Gallows Hill testing center, the unidentified man was discovered sleeping off his intoxication at the Athlone police station.
4. Mommy Dearest
In 2016, Ilyse Levine-Kanji from Westborough, Massachusetts, drove her 18-year-old son 171 kilometers (106 mi) to take his driver’s test. Upon arrival at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, they were told by the instructor that the test was canceled due to unspecified safety concerns.
Frustrated by the instructor’s refusal to reconsider, Levine-Kanji became enraged. She grabbed a ballpoint pen and attempted to stab the instructor, but he managed to restrain her by grabbing her arm.
Undeterred, the enraged mother—a member of the Westborough School Committee—bit the instructor’s forearm, leaving multiple wounds. Once her aggressive outburst subsided, Levine-Kanji and her son fled to their car and drove home.
Shortly after, state police stopped Levine-Kanji and her son on the Mass Pike, arresting her for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. This wasn’t her first legal trouble; in 2013, she was placed on probation and required to attend anger management counseling after repeatedly punching a woman at a child’s pool party.
3. Unanswered Questions
A parent’s worst nightmare unfolded during a driving lesson in 2014 when 16-year-old Joseph Franks ran a stop sign in Waterville, Ohio. Strangely, neither Franks nor his 48-year-old instructor, Thomas Smith, attempted to stop the car, leading to a crash with a minivan. The impact was so severe that the school vehicle flipped and landed in a nearby home’s front yard.
The minivan’s driver, 48-year-old Kathleen Woods, was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Tragically, Franks and Smith were declared dead at the crash site.
The heartbreaking incident was further complicated by details of Smith’s driving record. Just four days prior, he had been involved in an accident in his personal vehicle after failing to yield at a stop sign, resulting in a collision with a pickup truck.
2. Love Is in the Air
Love is a beautiful emotion meant to be shared, but not when it involves a 15-year-old female student being relentlessly pursued by her 45-year-old unstable driving instructor in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana.
This was the situation for a teenage girl who became the target of Angel F. Owens’ obsession. Between February and July 2016, Owens called the girl 650 times and sent over 12,000 texts filled with explicit sexual language. Detectives revealed that Owens had given the girl an iPhone, demanding she hide it from her parents. When the girl refused, Owens threatened to “make her family disappear.”
Owens’ obsession grew worse over time. After gifting the girl an engraved charm bracelet, she insisted the girl call her “momma” and would become enraged if her demands weren’t met.
When the girl finally told Owens to leave her alone, the instructor began stalking her, repeatedly driving past her home and sending messages threatening to kill herself. This led the girl’s family to report the behavior to the Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s office.
In a surprising admission, Owens confessed to detectives that she was “obsessed with the victim and had been stalking her,” perhaps hoping for sympathy. Instead, she was promptly arrested and charged with indecent behavior with a juvenile and stalking, with her bond set at $140,000.
1. Doughnut Run
In late 2016, Malisa L. Stocker, a North Marion High School driver education instructor in Florida, faced serious consequences after crashing the school’s vehicle during a trip to Dunkin’ Donuts. To conceal her actions, Stocker fabricated repair documents at the district’s bus garage, falsely claiming the damage occurred during a student lesson.
Stocker initially claimed a student had hit a tree. To support her story, she returned to the school at night with her sister to create fake tire marks and place tree bark on the car. As her scheme began to collapse, Stocker attempted to pressure a student into admitting responsibility for the crash.
Her situation grew more complicated when Stocker discovered she had collided with a car owned by the elderly grandfather of another student. She convinced him not to report the incident and withheld her insurance details.
“In summary, Stocker fled the accident scene, did not contact law enforcement, failed to inform the Risk Management department, and neglected to notify school administrators or her supervisor,” stated school superintendent Heidi Maier, who recommended Stocker’s termination.
