Mallory Raymond, 15, of Bethel is learning to drive from Bill Bray of Andover. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen
BETHEL — Driving instructor Bill Bray was relaying a story about driving with one of his students.
Bray said the student hadn’t had any real world driving experience but was proud of his playtime on the video game, Grand Theft Auto.
“I am pretty good at it,” he told Bray.
A tense moment ensued when, approaching a stop sign, “[he] didn’t know where the gas was or where the brake was. We were driving on the Flat Road, there was a stop sign, he hit the gas … I slammed on the brake. He’s screaming, throwing his hands up. I’m holding the brake.”
Bray makes the sound of an engine revving. “I told him, ‘Hey, let off the gas, Buddy.’ ‘Oh I thought it was the brake, he responded.'”
“I know,” Bray said.
Roy’s Driving School instructor Bill Bray of Andover teaches Bethel area teens to drive. They spend 10 hours in the car together and another 15 hours together in class. Kids text him to schedule a two-hour block of drive-time.
First lesson
As a back seat driver, probably the last place you want to find yourself is in the back seat of a driver’s ed car behind a first-time driver.
Mallory Raymond, 15, of Bethel has never been behind the wheel of a car before.
Raymond is at the wheel with Bray beside her. It is raining as she starts down Church Street toward Railroad Street. Raymond is approaching the stop sign at a pretty good clip when Bray hits the brake on the passenger side.
As the hour unfolds, Raymond demonstrates remarkable skill for a first-time driver and Bray proves to be a natural teacher. He never brakes again and only once silently reaches over to turn the wheel left when Raymond lilts right.
Bray doesn’t know what kind of first time driver he will get next. What steely-nerved job did he do in his past life? “I was making Pampers and Luvs for Proctor and Gamble,” he says.
As she heads up Paradise Road, he says to Raymond before her first two-point turn, “I’m looking for anything – Surron [electric] bikes, high speed scooters, bicycles, those cross-country skiers in the summertime.”
It is the first of Bray’s five repeated lessons. He says it is the safest way to turn around besides going around the block. “You identified a good safe spot to do a two-point turn, meaning there is nobody home,” he says as we pull into an empty driveway.
Later on Broad Street, Raymond pulls in to an open parking space, lesson two. Look into your blind spot at least two times, recommends Bray.
Lesson three is to slowly back up maintaining distance from the curb.
Lesson four is to pull out in traffic. “Mirror, blinker, shoulder … give me at least two over-the-shoulder looks,” Bray tells Raymond.
Parallel parking is the fifth and last lesson, but not yet… that will come with more experience on a subsequent day.
Parents
A few nights earlier a handful of future drivers and many parents sit in the lecture hall at Telstar High School.
There is a mountain of information to pass along, some parents take notes. Most have a smile as Bray tells stories about the way he learned to drive. He warns them, too, that whoever signs the permit is liable and will owe for a speeding ticket. “The supervising driver is the operator even in the passenger seat,” he stresses.
He speaks directly to the kids now, “you need to make sure, whoever is driving next to you is 20 years old and has been driving at least two years.”
Bray tells the parents when he picks up their children for their lessons, he’ll check their feet. No flip-flops or combat boots. He says he likes to take them to Gilead for the passing lane and to Rumford for “the screwed up” rotary.
While the number one and number two distractions – having children (1) or a baby (2) in the backseat, likely don’t apply to a 15-year old, the number three distraction does apply and is important. Bray gives harsh warnings against texting.
He tells them more than once, that failing to signal is the number one reason for failing your driving test.
He explains their future provisional license. “It’s not just ‘here’s your license, away you go.’ It’s a provisional license. You can’t just go driving around with your buddies. You need that 20-year-old [next to you], he warns.”
He concludes the night by answering questions and generously sharing his phone number and his e-mail address.
Driving
“A lot of [Maine] kids have driven a lot of different things … they already know how to operate a vehicle or machine.” Bray is saying. Raymond says she has driven a tractor in the field behind her house.
Bray is easy to chat with. He and Raymond talk about their shared love of math, but not every minute is conversation, since she needs to concentrate. Bray says he eventually will talk more to purposely distract his students. By the end of the fifth lesson, he lets them play music, but only if they have earned it.
“Don’t let the honkers influence your decision making,” he says as traffic prevents a quick turn onto Main Street and the car behind is laying on the horn.
Bray says his first drive with a student is his favorite.
In the middle, “I sound like a broken record … By the time I do the fifth lesson, that’s my second favorite [lesson]. Because they have improved so much and then – here’s your permit,” he says.
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