….I have spent more than twenty years on the front lines of driver education, seeking to win the trust of many new drivers and help them realize what safe driving really is…. but my journey began with tragedy and heartbreak….

On December 21st, 2003, I lost my only son, Merlyn, to a preventable car crash. That single phone call—the one no parent or family member should ever have to receive—shattered my world. It took me over three years to recover from the the emotional devastation that resulted from his loss.

From that moment forward, my life’s purpose and passion became very clear me: to do everything in my power to keep other drivers and families, like yours, from experiencing the same devastation. To honor as best I could my sons loss of life….more importantly to not have the love that families share cut short by a needless collision, crash, or wreck that ends a life so needlessly….

By 2006, I was standing in front of my first physical classroom with SWERVE the Driver Training Group in Redmond, WA. A year and a half later, I joined Defensive Driving School in Bellevue, where I poured myself into teaching for nearly seven years. Each student I’ve taught has represented a chance to save a life, to rewrite someone else’s story before tragedy could strike.

After meeting my wife, Sandi through of all things E-Harmony, I moved to Houston, Texas to marry her and to teach with the Houston Area Driving School for about one year. Soon after which, I partnered with Gary Fowler to open a SafeWay Driving School franchise in Sienna, Texas. For the past two decades, I’ve not only trained new drivers but also mentored many instructors.

In WA, I was a part of introducing third-party state road testing; in TX, I’ve been entrusted with administering the state road test for seven years—helping thousands take the final step toward independence, responsibility, and fully realized safe driving.

I’ve taught generations of drivers in WA and TX, well over 100,000 hours, from teens learning their first skills to families confronting dangerous habits. My approach has never been about “just passing the road test.” It’s about building awareness of risk and risk taking, learning to make split-second decisions under pressure, and changing the driving culture that fuels what I call America’s “driving risk epidemic.” I’ve also specialized in reaching students with high-functioning Autism, ADD, and ADHD—because every driver deserves the chance and right to learn how to drive safely and with confidence.

In 2007 I began to realize the deeper reasons of why drivers keep crashing which lead finally to writing my first book Are We There Yet? which finally was published on Amazon in 2020. Simply put its not about being safe that matters most when driving but how to be aware of managing the inherent risk which is a constant that far too many drivers ignore.

Today, through teaching, writing books, and this advocacy website seerisk2bsafe.com, I continue to honor my son Merlyn’s memory. Every book I write, every class I teach, every word I publish carries the same hope: that no parent, no family member, will ever again receive the devastating call I once did….”Mr. Thornton, I’m sorry to have to tell you this but your son was…..”