Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Perhaps you, like Beverly Henning and Dorothy Lancaster, have been driving for something like 50 years. Why invest a precious afternoon at this point in a driver safety course?
“Roads change. Laws change. Our bodies change,” Bev says, ticking off the reasons. “Vehicles are changing, too. The car you’re driving today is probably much different than the one you learned to drive in.”
And here’s a fifth reason: If you are over the age of 55, completing the driver safety four-hour class – sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons – gets Minnesotans a mandatory discount of at least 10% on their automobile insurance.
The law is a little different in North Dakota, where Dorothy teaches the driving refresher course. All drivers who take her class qualify for discounts “as appropriate” – that is, set by the insurance companies themselves — usually about 3%. “Many insurance companies may not be telling people about the dis-count,” she notes. “It’s a good idea to ask about it.”
Hundreds of older Minnesotans and North Dakotans take the monthly classes taught by the two women, Bev for seven years and Dorothy for two. Both concede that the discount is probably what motivates the majority of men and women who sign up for their four-hour classes. But most of their students would also agree that, decades after winning their drivers licenses as teens, an update sounds like a good idea.
From figuring out the hieroglyphics on modern dashboards to dealing with today’s more aggressive drivers, she says, mature adults may come away with more confidence behind the wheel. “Knowledge protects us from ourselves,” suggests Bev, a retired insurance adjuster. “A lot has changed, and let’s admit it: We don’t have the same reaction time we had when we were younger.”
Bev has a passion for safe driving. That comes, she reports, from 46 years spent on the road as an auto claims adjuster and business insurance underwriter for American Family and other insurance corporations. In all those years traveling North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota and part of South Dakota, she says, “I put on a lot of road miles. I saw some good driving and some bad driving.”
A bit of the latter, she admits, may have happened inside her own car: “Sometimes I was in a hurry,” she admits. “But in all those years, I only got one speeding violation. It was back in 1999 on Inter-state 94 here in Minnesota. And,” she adds, “unlike our neighbors, Minnesota has some teeth in its tickets.”
She got involved with the nationwide AARP program even be-fore her retirement in 2018. “I took my own class from Larry Crose of Hawley, who was getting ready to retire.” She began offering the AARP class through Moorhead Community Education with vet-eran teacher Mary Rolf, who mentored Bev until her own retirement from the classroom. Classes are held on the second Tuesday of each month from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Vista Education Center, 2777 34th St. S/
Dorothy retired after a career with the Transportation Safety Administration, checking travelers at airports in Minneapolis and Des Moines as well as Fargo. She trained to teach the AARP course after completing it herself. “Our instructor, who came from Grand Forks, got down on his knees asking someone to take over the class,” she laughs. Like Bev, she completed the organization’s training course before scheduling her first sessions. They’re currently held on the second Thursday of each month except January in the Ed Clapp Park Senior Center, 2801 32nd Ave S.
Both women’s classes are open to drivers from both sides of the Red River and elsewhere. Bev also coordinates the AARP driver safety program for Becker, Otter Tail and Wilkin counties as well as Clay, including classes in Barnesville, Hawley and Breckenridge.
The classes rely on the AARP’s Smart Driver Guidebook. Sessions focus on video instruction, broken up by classroom presentations and discussion. At the end, the class goes through a test to-gether, emphasizing the key take-aways. The safe driving course can also be taken entirely online, Bev says, but face-to-face sessions give students – and their teacher – a chance to learn from each others’ experiences. “I get as much input as I can,” she points out. “I’ve had over-the-road truck drivers, school bus drivers … I sometimes get as much out of it as the students.”
Both teachers’ courses include information specific to Minnesota and North Dakota. A four-page handout supplements the national manual with laws specific to the North Star State, from driving while impaired and texting or talking on the phone to sharing the road with emergency vehicles, school buses, motorcycles, bikes and pedestrians, while similar document covers North Dakota’s laws. Instructions are also reviewed for some local challenges – navigating the Diverging Diamond on exit 1 just east of the river, the unfamiliar new round-abouts, Minnesota’s sup-port of the zipper merge, and the tri-level intersection of Interstates 94 and 29.
Finally, the group discusses the elephant in the room – the reality that while everyone wants to drive as long as they can, some can no longer do so safely. “Some people say they’ll drive until the steering wheel is pried from their cold, dead hands. Unfortunately, some-times that happens,” Bev notes. “We talk about how to determine when you’re no longer able to drive, along with the many alternatives we have here in Moorhead – Doyle Cab, Uber, the MATBUS system. We’re lucky here.”
Along with the rest of the volunteers who teach AARP driver safety classes, Bev and Dorothy agree the rewards are plentiful.
“I’m not kidding. We really do feel that we’re saving lives,” Bev says. “Everybody needs to be aware that things change, and keep on changing.”
She adds, “And safety pays, especially in Minnesota. Your insurance discount should save at least $110 in the first year.”
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For more information on the AARP Driver Safety program and insurance discounts, go to https://www.aarp.org/auto/car-maintenance-safety/auto-insurance-discounts/