Christy Belisle warns students that theyll hear her voice long after her class is over, perhaps before they dial their cell phone while driving, exceed the speed limit, or lose their temper with another driver.


Belisle and the companies that have paid for their employees to take her course are counting on those students to remember the lessons covered in her classroom, so they dont have to learn them the hard way out on the road, where the wrong decision can prove to be fatal or cause a lot of damage.


For nearly two years, Belisle has been encouraging drivers here to change their bad habits and adopt defensive-driving techniques. Her business, Spokane Defensive Driving School, offers two certified defensive-driving programs, one aimed at businesses that have employees driving on company time, and the other aimed at teenagers and young adults.


Belisle argues that businesses benefit by enrolling their employees in defensive-driving courses both by potentially saving injuries and lives and by helping prevent accidents that could cost them in medical care, legal fees, property damage, and lost productivity. Statistics show that motor-vehicle collisions cost employers an average of $16,500, and can cost upward of $74,000 in the event of a death, Belisle says. Collisions cost employers in the U.S. a total of $60 billion a year, she says.


Enrolling employees in defensive-driving schools also helps businesses adhere to standards set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), she says.


Theres no big ah ha! in terms of the concepts we cover in the course, Belisle says. I tell students, Im helping you change your habits so that you can save yourself and your company money.


Unlike drivers education courses, which teach students driving mechanics and the rules of the road so that they can get their drivers licenses, defensive driving focuses on reducing risks by enhancing a drivers ability to recognize hazards, understand the defensive moves necessary to avoid them, and react correctly in time to make a difference, Belisle says.


Defensive driving is about being responsible for what you can control, she says. The goal is to save lives, time, and money.


Belisle adds that defensive driving isnt about making sure a student isnt at fault for an accident; rather, its about avoiding the accident in the first place.


I often tell my students, How right do you have to be to be dead? she says.


Belisle, who runs the business out of her South Hill home, has taught nearly 400 students since she started offering classes here in April of 2006. Belisles business clients have included Food Services of America Inc., Northern Quest Casino, and Landmark Restaurants Inc., which operates the Franks Diner and The Onion eateries here. Her husband, Ken, is a partner in Landmark Restaurants.


Typically, clients are businesses that have employees who drive on company time, such as for sales, delivery, or accounting purposes, among others, she says. Class sizeswhich typically include employees from a single companyneed to range between 15 and 25 people, she says. Since some companies want to sign up fewer than 15 employees for classes, Belisle started offering open enrollment for classes at the beginning of this year. Those classes can include students from several different businesses, or people who are attending on their own initiative rather than at an employers behest.


Belisle typically teaches the classes at an employers location, but for an additional fee will hold them at The Onion restaurant downtown if a company doesnt have a good place to hold a class, she says. She also teaches the open enrollment classes at The Onion, where the fee includes a catered lunch. Class fees range from $40 to $75 per student, and discounts are available, she says.


The course that Belisle teaches to businesses is called Defensive Driving Course-4, and was designed by the National Safety Council (NSC), of Itasca, Ill. During the four-hour class, students read through and answer questions in a manual and watch two video presentations. They also participate in an aggressive driving skit in which they hold plastic toy cars while enacting a driving scenario. Belisle breaks the students into small groups to talk about how they can increase their awareness of potential hazards while driving. She says she talks with students about their bad driving habits, and encourages them to try breaking those habits at least once. One of the habits that the class frequently discusses is driving with distractions, such as while drinking a cup of coffee or talking on a cell phone, she says.


I try to give them reasonable goals and encourage steps that seem achievable to them, Belisle says. We talk about speeding, and driving safely even when your kids arent in the car, and looking twice at crosswalks.


The course doesnt include any actual driving instruction or field activities.


Belisle also encourages students to adopt mental activities that decrease anxiety during driving. For instance, she tells them that when someone is driving really slowly in front of them, they should assume that the driver has a good reason for driving that way.


I tell them, Try to imagine that they have a birthday cake in the back seat that they dont want to tip over, she says. Its about getting (the students) to calm down and have a change of mind.


At the end of the class, students take a test, and if they pass, they receive a certificate of completion.


Students can submit those certificates to their auto insurance companies, which often will give discounts on insurance premiums to customers who have completed a defensive-driving course, she says.


In January, Belisle introduced the Alive at 25 program, which contains material similar to that in the Defensive Driving Course-4, but is presented in a more interactive format designed for youths ages 16 to 24. Teaching defensive driving skills to young people is particularly important, considering that 15- to- 24-year-olds make up 13 percent of drivers in the U.S. but account for 26 percent of preventable collisions, she says.


Belisle hasnt held any Alive at 25 classes yet, but plans to hold them in the Onion restaurant downtown. Shes also looking at talking to youth and parent groups about the program, and presenting them an abbreviated version of it.


Court system


Belisle, who has spent most of her career in sales and marketing, became interested in defensive driving in 2005 as a result of conversations with Don Belisle, her father-in-law, who is Yakima Countys probation director. He told her the probation department there had been running a defensive-driving program for a couple of years and was seeing positive results from it.


I thought, If its working in the court system, can it work elsewhere? she says.


Belisle received her training at Yakimas probation department as well as from a trainer from the NSC, through which she obtained certification as an instructor. She claims that while other driving schools in Spokane offer defensive-driving courses, she is the only instructor who is certified through the NSC.


One of the benefits of being aligned with the NSC is that it provides well-researched materials and updates the information in its materials frequently, she asserts. Another benefit is that the instruction is standardized, so that drivers in Spokane participate in the same program as drivers in others parts of the U.S., she says.


Belisle is talking with the municipal court systems here about referring to her school drivers whom they require to take a defensive-driving course, she says.


Belisle declines to disclose her annual revenues. She is the schools sole employee, but she has two assistants she pays to help her during the classes.


Contact Emily Proffitt at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at


emilyp@spokanejournal.com.