After 20 years of friendly and mutually beneficial relations, a lawsuit filed by the National Safety Council against Northwestern’s Center for Public Safety threatens to damage the relationship between the two organizations.
The NSC suit alleges that the Center for Public Safety began to offer courses not developed by the NSC after the contract between the two organizations lapsed June 5, in violation of a 90-day no-compete clause. The clause states no agency using the NSC materials may “directly or indirectly promote, sell, distribute, offer, receive training or otherwise become affiliated with any driver improvement courses other than those developed or offered by the National Safety Council.”
The case came before Judge Leroy Martin of the Cook County Circuit Court on June 11. Martin entered a motion effective immediately that stipulates Northwestern will only provide driver improvement courses offered by the NSC from the period beginning on June 11 for the subsequent ninety days, according to Al Cubbage, vice president of university relations.
“We were communicating probably on a bi-weekly basis with the staff at Northwestern,” said John Kennedy, the executive director of defensive driving programs at the NSC. “In fact, they have always been one of the sites to pilot our newly revised programs and they have been involved in curriculum development.”
“After that ninety days, the university can continue to go beyond that as it wishes,” Cubbage said.
Although the lawsuit is still underway, the NSC has expressed interest in a reconciliation process that will allow them to work together with Northwestern again as they have in the past.
“We’d like to continue working with Northwestern,” Kennedy said. “In fact, we have reached out to Northwestern numerous times to continue the relationship.”
The Center for Public Safety has worked with the NSC for two decades and has used its curricula and instructors to offer four different courses to traffic violators teaching methods of improving their driving skills.
The NSC is a not-for-profit public service organization devoted to educating the public about methods to help avoid life-threatening accidents. The Center for Public Safety, 1801 Maple Ave., shares a similar mission and provides educational opportunities to improve driver competence, as well as numerous other services to promote public safety.
