ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The 100 days of summer are known as the deadliest for teen drivers, but is Florida doing enough to gear them up for the road? The Sunshine State is among the few that don’t require driver’s education.
More than 200,000 teens are on Florida’s roads according to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. There’s a sharp increase in deadly teen crashes from Memorial Day to Labor Day from 64 fatalities statewide in the summer of 2019 up to 83 last year.
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“Yes, I’m concerned about her as she’s just starting to drive. But I’m more concerned about the other drivers on the road than I am her,” Christopher Claudio, a local father, said as his daughter went in to take her driving exam.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is working to pump the brakes on the startling trend.
“Anytime you’re behind the wheel is an opportunity for disaster if something goes wrong,” Mark Wilson, a youth resource deputy at Palm Valley Academy, said.
The Teen Driver Challenge debuted this year in St. Johns County, which is one of 64 counties statewide participating, including most in Northeast Florida.
Read: Teaching teen drivers safety through hands-on training in St. Johns County
It’s a free, one-day course with in-class and behind-the-wheel instruction for 15- to 19-year-olds. They navigate the same course that deputies train on and the summer classes were booked up in a matter of days.
“I was shocked when we put the course out,” Paul Beasley, a St. Johns Sheriff’s deputy, said. “It’s to give them a little extra skills that they might need that maybe their parents haven’t thought of.”
Action News Jax discovered Florida is one of only 11 states nationwide that don’t require driver’s education for new drivers to get a license. That’s compared to 37 states that do, including Georgia, for most drivers under 18 years old, according to data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
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“It’s a multitask function to drive. You have to think with your hands, your feet, you have to look around and listen. We try to teach those skills to focus on what they’re doing,” Beasley said.
Action News Jax’s Robert Grant asked if those skills are missing in a lot of teen drivers.
“Unfortunately yes,” Wilson said. “And that’s where we are really happy to bring the program back to St. Johns County.”
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SJSO released its Fall dates for the program (see below). Summer classes will be released in April next year. You can find more information online:
- September 20, 2024
- September 28, 2024 (Saturday)
- October 14, 2024
- November 2, 2024 (Saturday)
- November 25, 2024
- November 26, 2024
- January 2, 2025
- January 3, 2025
- January 25, 2025 (Saturday)
- February 14, 2025
- March 8, 2025 (Saturday)
- March 17, 2025
- March 18, 2025
- April 18, 2025
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