Safety First Driving School, Inc.

One Car, One Leap of Faith, Three Decades of Trust

You know that feeling when your kid is about to get behind the wheel for the first time and your stomach is doing flips? Stephanie Mihalczo gets it. She’s been walking families through that exact moment for over three decades.

Stephanie and her husband John started Safety First Driving School on July 4th, 1992. They picked Independence Day on purpose, because that’s exactly what it was. John had been instructing at other schools, and when the opportunity came to buy an existing operation, their banker looked at the numbers and told them flat out: you’d be better off starting your own. So they did. One car. One big leap of faith.

What started as a single car operation out of Franklin Park has grown into something families across the area rely on, and keep coming back to. Stephanie loves the term “generational” because that’s what’s happening. She’s watched teenagers she taught years ago walk back through the door with their own kids.

The Hillsborough connection actually started with Safety First’s very first student in Hillsborough, Shaun O’Hara, who went on to play for the New York Giants. Those drives through town stuck with John, and eventually the family put down roots there. Today, Safety First coordinates pickups right from Hillsborough High School and schedules around the rhythms of student life.

What sets Safety First apart isn’t just the instruction, it’s the consistency. Every instructor follows the same standardized curriculum, so if someone has to fill in, nothing changes for the student. That might sound like a small thing, but parents notice.

And then there’s the stuff that doesn’t show up on a website. Families say Safety First is the only school that actually picks up the phone. The office has mailed permits to parents who were too sick to come get them. Instructors work seven days a week. Not because Stephanie feels confident every minute of every day, but because she feels a responsibility to every family that trusts her team with their kid’s first time on the road. After 30 plus years, it still means something every single time.