About Us

In-Service  -  Civilian  -  Commercial  -  Instructor Course
 

The History

In August of 1998, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department made arrangements with the Department of Airports for the lease of the former Mather Air Force Base Alert Pad.  The Sheriff's Department had been searching for a permanent place to conduct driver training and saw this as an exciting opportunity.  Immediately, personnel began cleaning the site and arranging for equipment and trailers to be brought in.  Terrazzo grinders were used to smooth out a concrete section that would soon be used as a skid pan.  Along the way, the Sheriff's Department was joined by the Sacramento City Police Department and the Sacramento City Fire Department.  The three agencies formed a partnership created the Sacramento Regional Driver Training Authority.  

Not long after the clean-up we began providing driver training classes on a regular basis.  Over the past several years, improvements have been made.  Classrooms are comfortable and equipment is state of the art.  The facility now includes three multi-media classrooms and four driving simulators.  The fleet of cars used for training has grown to nearly forty, the newest being 2007 Ford Crown Victorias.  All of the cars, most of which were purchased new, are equipped for training and well maintained.  The fleet also includes nearly a dozen commercial vehicles such as fire engines, grass rigs, ambulances, and class-a vehicles.  We also have a fleet of civilian vehicles for use with the civilian driver training programs.

The instructors here at S.R.D.T.F. are full time driver training instructors having over 200 years of combined experience teaching emergency vehicle operations.  All of the instructors are certified by P.O.S.T. and the California State Fire Marshall.  Each instructor assigned to S.R.D.T.F. is a professional in the driver training field.  All realize the need for ongoing driver training and very much enjoy teaching.

So does driver training really work?  

Statistics show the number of liability claims due to automobile accidents have dropped considerably since the start of the training program at the Sacramento Regional Driver Training Facility in 1998.  The number of liability claims for the County of Sacramento hovered around 300 in the mid 1990's and has steadily dropped to 149 for the fiscal year 2000 - 2001.  The amount of money paid out in liability claims has dropped by a much larger percent showing that, in conjunction with the drop in accident frequency rate,  the severity of accidents have also dropped.

The City of Sacramento has gathered statistics that show nearly the same percentages in the drop of accident frequency rates.  Again, they too show a very large drop in accident severity as well.  The city report also shows they have experienced the same trend as the Sheriff's Department throughout the years.  Prior to S.R.D.T.F., each time they conducted driver training, their accident frequency rate dropped for the following year, only to rise again until the rate increased to a point requiring driver training again.  This in itself shows that driver training works.