Tri-Nation's Worst Driver
Note: I do not own any rights to the Worst Driver series. All rights reserved to the respective owners.
Tri-National's Worst Driver 1 is the first season of the Tri-National's Worst Driver series, which airs on Discovery Channel. In this first year, fourteen people,
nominated by their family or friends, enter the Driver Rehabilitation Centre to improve their driving skills. The Driver Rehabilitation Centre takes place this year at Dunnville Airport in Dunnville, Ontario. The season finale takes place in New York City, New York. Hosted by: Andrew Younghusband.
Contestants:
A.B. Negreanu: A French professor from Montréal, Quebec, is self-deemed too timid behind the wheel; to the point in which he can spend more than five seconds facing a green light before moving his car – and even then, he drives well under the speed limit. In sharp contrast to road rage, he is far too generous at the wheel, and nominator and younger brother Anton Negreanu believes that he will be rear-ended in an accident soon before he can change his ways. He drives a Chevrolet Blazer.
Alexander (Alex) Beckley: An electrician apprentice from Burnaby B.C, commonly directs his attention from driving to himself. He seems to care more about his destination rather than the safety needed to get there. By virtue of speeding, tailgating, and his phrase, "If no one sees you, it isn't illegal.", he is known for just not taking things seriously. He is brought to rehab by his cousin Dale Schwartz to set him straight once and for all. He drives a navy blue Honda Civic.
Huck Perry: A children's book author from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who has 4 years of driving experience, yet has only driven 12 times since getting his license.
This causes him to have an extreme lack of skill behind the wheel. He was nominated by friend Sophia S. Sarr in an attempt to get him the knowledge and practice that he never received. He drives a Pontiac G6.
Gor Vasquez: A chef from Orlando, Florida, is a champion videogame racecar driver, having won an online competition, but uses the same techniques he uses while playing the game when driving in real life. He believes that he is safer by driving above the speed limit as it keeps him away from other bad drivers, and treats every stop as the start of a race. His friend Michael Canalas has nominated him in fear of them both getting into a serious accident if no action is taken. He drives a Ferrari GT 275.
Cody Villegas: A basketball enthusiast from Palm Beach, Florida, is skill wise, a decent driver, except for a constant tendency towards road rage and a little freeway game he calls "bumper tag". This involved passing cars that he was annoyed at and suddenly slamming on his brakes in front of them, forcing them to panic brake to avoid a collision. Cody was nominated by his buddy, Zachary Reilly. He drives a red Chevrolet Lumina.
Ken Masek: A medical school student from Toronto, Ontario, is a common case of "I'm the best!". His overconfidence causes him to be in denial over any actions and incidents that face him; including blaming other drivers and his own passengers for his gratuitous amounts of mistakes. His uncle Alexandru Masek nominated Ken in an attempt to shock Ken into reality, and learn to be more realistic when it comes to his skills. Ken drives a black Nissan Pathfinder.
Tommy McKeehen: An engineering student from Kingston, Ontario, owns a car but has no real desire to drive it; he prefers public transit because he is an overly unconfident driver who cannot handle highway speeds or large numbers of other vehicles and pedestrians. He is considering selling his car if he cannot improve his driving skills. He was nominated by his friend Jennifer Monaco. He drives a Hyundai Sonata.
Jean Terry: A calm computer programmer from Miami, Florida, becomes mentally unstable when on the inside of a car. This can cause him to break down entirely on public roads, even going so far as to stop in the middle of the road when he is confused. On occasions he begins to forget basic driving notions such as the meaning of a green light. His buddy Ian Ellis nominated him in an attempt to get his friend back to the way he was before. Jean drives a GMC Safari.
Frank Butteroni: An automobile engineering apprentice from Edmonton, Alberta, is a speed addict, loving to weave in and out of traffic on busy highways going at 150 km/h. As a result, he has had his license suspended several times, owned over 5 cars, and has been under special watch from his girlfriend Kate Burton, who has nominated him in hopes that he can finally learn the consequences of his actions and follow proper driving laws.
Henry Voss: A wildlife biologist from Tampa Bay, Florida, appears completely oblivious behind the wheel of a car, to the point where he has delays when going through a green light. This, along with constant distractions when driving, has caused his friend John McClymond Andrew to take over driving when they hang out, and to nominate Henry to finally knock some attention into him. He drives a Pontiac Sunfire.
Ivan Rhine: An athletic personal trainer from Tallahassee, Florida, is a self-described old man trapped in a young man's body. This is based upon his slow and timid driving, and his "Too Nice" mindset, which oddly enough, doesn't carry over to his autocratic style of personal training. One of his valued clients, Ragan Haynes, nominated him in an attempt to add consistency and lessen stress to Ivan's life. He drives a Toyota Tercel.
Pat Steinberg: A professional ice hockey studio analyst from Victoria, British Columbia, has only ten months of experience behind the wheel, after getting his license after less than 17 hours of practice. This has caused him to be very inexperienced, and has motivated his mother Madeline Steinberg to nominate him to give Pat the necessary practice and experience he needs. He drives a Dodge Caravan.
Nathanael (Nat) Lawrence: An architect from Canberra, Australia, who is considered to be over analytical. He always attempts to look at situations from every point of opinion, which causes him to commonly distract him from the logical focal point of driving. He has been nominated by friend Shaun Lawakeli Schupp to enter Driver's Rehab in an attempt to get him to relax his mind. He drives a Ford Crown Victoria.
Matthew (Matt) Smith: A video game creator from Brisbane, Australia, is a self-proclaimed "Master Multitasker" behind the wheel. He has become addicted to eating, drinking, reading a book, texting, and watching videos on his phone, all while driving with his knees. His constant distractions causes his friend Sebastian Smith to nominate Matthew in order to save him from himself. He drives a Cadillac STS Seville.
Experts:
Cam Woolley is the show's legal expert, and has seen the habits of Canadian drivers change drastically over the years, with the most common offence having changed from DUI to distracted driving over the previous decade. He is the traffic expert on CP24 in Toronto, and had a 25-year career as a traffic sergeant with the Ontario Provincial Police.
Phillipe Letourneau is a veteran high-speed driving instructor, who counts BMW and Ferrari among his clients. Over the years, the average car has gained considerably in speed and acceleration, with the high-speed emphasis of this season making his job a particularly important one.
Shyamala Kiru is the show's resident psychologist and relationship expert, a position which has become more demanding each year as the stresses in driving and everyday life seem to always be on the increase.
Tim Danter is the show's head driving instructor. In this position he not only gives the drivers help and instructions for challenges, but gives them further lessons off-screen.
Episode 1: Ready, Set, Go!
Arriving to Rehab:
In the series premiere, the fourteen candidates are introduced. For their first challenge, each candidate must drive themselves from a parking lot to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre. The route includes going through a tunnel, over some train tracks, onto a highway, through a residential area, and over a bridge. The order in which the candidates leave the parking lot are Ken, Ivan, A.B., Jean, Tommy, Huck, Pat, Henry, Nathanael, Matthew, Cody, Gor, Alexander, and Frank. Ken, overconfident once again, neglects simple laws such as stop signs and right of ways; but he does arrive 4th. Ivan, despite being very timid and allowing on the road, manages to arrive at the rehab centre without any incidents, but finishes 13th. A.B., being not receptive to the flow of traffic and constant worrying, arrives at the rehab center in 14th. Jean, non-receptive to any input from Ian, and constantly panicking, only manages to arrive in 12th. Tommy, despite not feeling confident enough at times, manages to arrive 6th. Huck, using the amount of knowledge that he does have, arrives 8th. Pat, after unknowingly taking several wrong turns, inadvertently arrives at the rehab centre in 7th. Henry, after his distractions causing him to miss many turns and steps, manages to arrive at the rehab centre in 11th. Nathanael, taking time to read each step himself, slows down to the point of arriving in 9th. Matthew, with him drinking, eating, and listening to music while driving, causes him to crash twice, and arrive in 10th. Cody, after avoiding bumper tag, and managing to control his temper, arrives in 5th. Frank, Alex, and Gor are all caught street racing, and are driven to the rehab centre by the camera crew, arriving in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively.
Basic Assessment:
After revealing that this year's challenge car will be a Camaro SS, Andrew walks through the basic assessment that each driver will undertake. Firstly, it starts with reversing through a course of wheel rims, followed by a U-turn in a section of concrete barriers, and finally a slalom between foam people at 50 km/h. Pat is first-up and gets off to a predictably bad start, knocking over a set of wheel rims before Andrew can even finish his introductory speech. Despite Madeline's best efforts to guide him, he knocks over nearly every set of wheel rims, dents and scrapes the Camaro in the U-turn, and then drives the slalom at an inconsistent speed and hit most of the foam people. Huck's run is near-identical to Pat's, as he never uses his mirrors in the reverse segment, causes even more damage to the car's bodywork in the U-turn, and goes significantly under-speed in the slalom. Same goes for Jean and Ken. Frank does even worse than the previous drivers, not using his mirrors once in the reverse section (which takes him over 20 minutes to complete), nearly tears off the Camaro's front bumper in the U-turn, and then goes completely off the course during the slalom. Henry does a little better than the previous drivers in the first two segments, albeit with extensive coaching from Andrew to remain focused, but goes under-speed in the slalom and hits several foam people. Cody has by far the best run so far, not knocking down a single wheel rim, only experiencing a very low-speed collision in the U-turn, and then executing the slalom flawlessly, all without getting mad. Matt is the only driver to finish the assessment absolutely flawless, much of which Matt admits to not having distractions. Ivan's main issue in the reversing section, surprisingly, turns out to be being over-cautious; he completes it while only knocking a few rims down, but takes more than half an hour to do. His run rapidly falls apart in the U-turn, however, as he rips off the Camaro's rear bumper, then drives with only one hand on the wheel in the slalom, going far too wide and completely missing the required turns. Nathanael does quite well in the reverse section, only hitting three rims, but then seriously bumps and scrapes the car in the U-turn, before trying to take the slalom at 80 km/h and violently spinning off-course, which reduces Shaun to tears. Gor performs similarly, with Michael keeping his composure. A.B., in a more familiar turn of events, is the slowest performer of the day, taking over 40 minutes to complete the reversing course (though he hits fewer rims than many of the other drivers). After that, he can't even complete the U-turn and so is allowed to bypass to the slalom, where his repeated under-steering causes him to fail. Tommy initially struggles in the reversing course due to trouble aligning himself correctly, but soon picks it up, then executes the U-turn flawlessly, but like A.B., under-steers on the slalom and fails, though is still the only driver apart from Cody and Matt to successfully complete any of the segments. Alex, from the start, appears to care very little about the challenge, knocking down multiple rims, botching up the Camaro's paint job in the U-Turn, and over speeds during the slalom, and although finishing in the fastest time, is overwhelmingly the worst.
Reflection:
The drivers then have their initial meeting with the experts. Alex explains that his behaviour stemmed from being overconfident, and that he'll fix it as soon as possible. Nathanael asks Philippe to go over the footage of his slalom spin-out with him, and Philippe tells him his mistake was driving too fast and not looking where he wanted to go, instead directly staring at the foam people. Ivan and Gor are also called out for making the same mistake in his run. A.B. thinks he might be Canada's Worst Driver Ever; Andrew tells him that he probably isn't that bad, but that he could still benefit from more rehab). Matt has agreed with the judges that he now knows that his car distractions are the cause of his driving problems, and because of that, he would like to graduate. Cody also feels that he should graduate, with him believing that if his calm drive to rehab and near-perfect assessment are any indicator, he has surmounted his road rage problems. The remaining drivers all deny that they may be Canada's Worst Driver Ever.
Deliberation:
Due to the exceptionally awful performances by most of the drivers, the experts agree to graduate one person immediately so as to give the remainder their full attention, and very quickly decide on Cody, as he has the strongest performance total from both challenges. However, Cam raises the issue that Matthew would not realistically benefit from rehab, as he has already obtained a decent driving skill, he's realized the root of his problems, and acknowledges that he'll fix them, and that they would be better served sending him home and focusing on the remainder. Ultimately, the experts decide to keep Cody around to fully confirm that his attitude has changed, and Andrew gives Matthew his licence back, on the condition that he promises to never drive distracted again. Matthew agrees, and he becomes the first graduate.