Yellowknife (Feb 21/03) - Norm Pottinger never looked back, not even through the rear-view mirror.

The retired miner established Yellowknife's first Arctic driving school in 1995 and has since taught thousands of drivers how to handle Yellowknife's worst winter weather road conditions.

Norm Pottinger stands with one of the vehicles in his fleet used to teach drivers the basics of the road. - NNSL photo

After working as a miner for 27 years, Pottinger decided in the early 1990s that he was ready for a career change.

He took some time off and drove around Edmonton looking for inspiration.

"I was looking for something that Yellowknife doesn't have when one of those student driver cars drove past me," he said. "I looked into becoming a driving instructor right away."

He started Arctic Defensive Driving School out of his home.

In December he moved into a much larger Kam Lake location, with an office and classroom space.

He said 60 per cent of his customers are young first-time drivers, but he also gets an influx of newcomers to the North who aren't used to winter driving.

He remembers a distraught cab driver who had moved to Canada from Jamaica and wasn't able to adjust.

"He'd had some problems controlling the car but my course helped him out," said Pottinger.

"After he was done he told me he'd learned more in one hour than he had in two years."

Pottinger said that Yellowknife roads are actually quite safe.

"Most people up here know how to drive," he said. "Actually ice is pretty crusty, it gives a lot of traction.

"It's when it warms up you have to worry."

Driving in the snow is easy to master with a few basic skills, he said.

The only tricky part is learning how to steer out of a skid.

He takes students out on the ice in the winter and onto gravel into the summer to demonstrate the proper method.

Pottinger also recommends that people never spin their tires and look for gravel patches on the road to slow down, stop and start.

Pottinger also travels to Fort Simpson and Norman Wells to give special driving instruction to professional truck drivers.