People

In 1983, while working as a Service Manager for a chain of tire stores on Ohio, Mr. Munson began a series of clinics for women, about the changes in cars (front-wheel drive, smaller sizes) and basic repairs, maintenance, and information about cars. These clinics were so well received, that the National Tire and Retreaders Association wrote an article about them, and Mr. Munson, in their National Magazine.

The magazine article caught the eyes of the Engineering Department at TRW, Automotive Aftermarket Group, in Cleveland, OH. They offered Mr. Munson the position of Corporate Trainer, in order to explain to technicians around the USA and Canada about repairing these newer cars, using TRW parts.

In 1986, the FMC Corporation, Automotive Division, makers of automotive test equipment such as alignment machines, brake lathes, and diagnostic scopes, offered Mr. Munson an equivalent job in their Conway, AR facility, a position he held until the untimely demise of his wife, in 1989.

TRW re-hired Mr. Munson, and moved him back to Ohio, to be near his family, and continue his duties as Corporate Trainer. In 1991, the Automotive Aftermarket Group was sold to Federal Mogul, and the Corporate Trainer position was eliminated.

Mr. Munson wanted to stay in the automotive field, and loved training. An offer to work for Heights Driving School, in Ohio, was offered, and that began his life in the driving industry.

As he did in the Corporate fields, Mr. Munson immediately set out to learn as much about his "product", driving, as he could, and that process has never stopped. He still spends countless hours researching new data, techniques, and skills needed for teaching driving safety.

Those hours were reflected in being named "Instructor of the Year" for 2001, by the Driving School Association of California. In addition to his other awards for public speaking from the auto industry, this award catapulted him to a position of being well-known as the "go-to" man for driving information.

This generated the interest to begin the California Driver Education Association, in 2003, which gathered together driving instructors from around the state, to promote professionalism in the driving industry and exchange information.

Mr. Munson is recognized, and authorized, by the California DMV, to conduct Continuing Education Seminars for instructors in both driving and traffic schools, which he does 4 times each year in different areas of the state.

Eddie Wren's background in driving and road safety is extensive. He spent fourteen years in the British police, mostly serving as a traffic patrol officer.

During that time he was trained as a police ‘advanced driver’ and ‘advanced motorcyclist,’ scoring the second highest test marks in the history of the force concerned, for the latter. British police advanced driving courses are widely regarded as the highest level of road-driver training in the world, and can total up to 640 hours to achieve the required standards.

As a necessary and frequent part of his duties, he attended and investigated many hundreds of road crashes, ranging from minor to fatal.

For the last three years of his police service, Eddie was chosen, on a full-time basis, to visit senior schools, colleges, and apprentice training centres, to discuss safety and survival with groups of young drivers and bikers. He gave several hundred of these talks.

The specialist section to which he belonged was Britain's first such police department and was the forerunner to many excellent schemes, including BikeSafe

At the wheel of a VW Phaeton -

After leaving the police, he became a ‘Department of Transport Approved Driving Instructor’ and worked for the British School of Motoring. He was swiftly promoted to supervisory instructor.

Because of his students’ high driving-test success rates, Eddie was subsequently invited to become a driving test examiner, but declined the offer.

He later became a civilian investigator and handled many road accident cases on behalf of lawyers and insurance companies.

He then – by invitation – became the managing director of an advanced driver training company, for which he recruited former police instructors and arranged the training schedules for individuals who wished to learn to drive to the same high standards as do British traffic patrol officers.

Eddie Wren was subsequently appointed as the only north of England driver for a branch of the U.K. ‘National Health Service’ that organizes the delivery of donor organs. This necessitated driving at extreme speeds for long distances on public roads, but always with police clearance. In December 1999, he was featured in the UK ‘Volvo Magazine’ regarding his position in charge of training for the team of donor organ transportation drivers in Scotland.

He has driven regularly and extensively in the USA over the past four years and has now almost completed the writing of a book on driving in America.

The adjacent photograph was taken in June 2003, on an occasion when he was categorically not permitted to 'drive', when -- after many months of applications and planning -- he was allowed to take a navigator's seat during a two-plane low-flying exercise in RAF Hawk jets, through the valleys of the English Lake District and in Scotland -- a truly 'Top Gun' experience with some of the best low flyers in the world. This was one assignment in his role as a freelance writer and photographer for British and American magazines.

Eddie Wren is now the executive director of Drive and Stay Alive, Inc. (a not-for-profit organization), and he is also the Vice President, and Director of Policy, for Advanced Drivers of America, Inc .

He is available as a speaker -- in the USA or elsewhere -- either on practical driver safety topics, for senior school students, colleges, universities, service organizations and special interest groups, or on the subject of international comparisons in road safety ideas, techniques and results.

Under his management, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc., has achieved the following:

The first and so-far only North American Organization to be made a signatory of the European Road Safety Charter (though this was for DSA's global contribution to safety, not any Europe-specific aspect);

The Best International Traffic Safety Website award of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals (CARSP -- June 2004);

A national commendation from the Governors' Highway Safety Association (GHSA) in the USA, "for outstanding commitment to international highway safety" (July 2005);

Sponsorship for DSA's unique International Road Safety News, from the FIA Foundation (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile), the governing body of world motor sports (July 2005).