OCSO hosting Teen Driver Challenge

Two law enforcement agencies are coming together to offer a special program for teens starting again this month. 

The Teen Driver Challenge Program is a partnership between the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Sheriff’s Association to provide teen drivers with the knowledge and hands-on experience to reduce the chances of being involved in a crash.

The eight-hour defensive driving course combines classroom and practical instruction. 

Students cover topics in the classroom, including teen crash facts, knowing your vehicle, using your senses, vehicle dynamics, safe driving habits and aggressive driving. 

During this time, participants have the opportunity to talk to deputies and ask questions in a comfortable setting about what happens if they were to get pulled over and what they should do. 

On the hands-on side, students complete figure eights, learn threshold and emergency braking, backing, cornering, off-road recovery, evasive maneuvers and more. 

The officers explain and demonstrate the exercises before teens take to the pad, accompanied by an instructor. 

Sgt. Michael A. Rosignol with the OCSO, who is in charge of the Law Enforcement Vehicle Operations Training Center, explained the curriculum is designed by the FSA and mirrors many of the academy exercises the deputies and police officers go through.

Rosignol, who has been in law enforcement since 1994, said the students generally go through the exercises four to six times to see if they can improve. 

“We typically do see improvement,” he said. “It’s very rare that we don’t.”

The sergeant said the students also participate in a sponsored lunch and earn a certificate at a ceremony held after the completion of the class. 

He said the goal is to teach students the huge responsibility of operating a vehicle. 

“As instructors and parents, we hope the students will take away that the large vehicle that they’re driving, no matter how small it is, is still a large object that can hurt people,” he said. “That object that they are sitting behind the wheel of can cause damage, and if it’s not used responsibly, they can hurt a lot of people and themselves.”

STARTING OFF

Rosignol said the idea of the program had been thrown around for quite some time, but due to budgetary reasons, it never took off. 

When Sheriff John Mina was elected, one of the first actions he took was to contact Rosignol’s department. He asked about the program and helped the sergeant to move forward with it.

The challenge was researched in 2019 and officially born in 2020. 

Although the program was successful in its first year, Rosignol said the coronavirus pandemic caused serious limitations and restrictions on the classes. 

In fact, Rosignol’s daughter was even part of the pilot program. 

He said his daughter was shy when she first started driving and was not happy to be taking the course, but as they were leaving to go home, she said she had a good time and had fun.

“We usually receive a pretty positive response from parents and students,” the sergeant said. 

In addition to Rosignol loving to teach, the instructors seem to love it just as much, and it shows.

Many of the instructors also are academy instructors who deal with teaching younger officers, which helps to translate to younger kids. 

The instructors work their own full-time jobs, as well, participating in the program through their own voluntary time. 

“We have some really good instructors that work well with the students, and they’re here because they want to be here, not because they’re forced to be here,” Rosignol said. “Most of us in the training world — two of the most positive things that will ever happen are when someone comes back and says, ‘Hey you saved my life’ or ‘What you taught me helped me out of a situation,’ and the other thing is for us to see someone who’s in the middle of training and literally watch a lightbulb go off in their head when they get it.”

Another goal the department has is to show kids that even with the negative stigma placed around law enforcement, members are still just normal people too. 

Although the program is doing well and helping to bridge that gap, Rosignol said he still has bigger hopes for the future. 

“We hope that we can get as many community members involved as we can,” he said. 

The sergeant explained that most people who sign up have heard about it from law enforcement, but he hopes to reach people from across the community. 

“I’m hoping as the years go by that we start getting a larger and broader spectrum of the community so that they have an opportunity to experience this,” he said. 

Rosignol said he also would like to expand to offer more classes, but the law-enforcement job is consuming, limiting the opportunity to four to eight classes a year.

REQUIREMENTS

The Teen Driver Challenge is open to drivers between the ages of 15 and 19 who have held a valid Learner's Permit or Florida Operator's License for at least six months. 

All drivers must provide their own vehicles for the class, and each class can accept a total of 14 students. 

Submissions of interest for Teen Driver classes opens 45 days prior to the listed class date and closes 25 days prior to the start of the session. A submission of interest does not automatically register the candidate, and there are no waitlists. They are admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.

GET INVOLVED

For more information, click here or email the OCSO LEVO Unit at [email protected].

Upcoming classes are held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Friday, June 10; Friday, July 15; and Monday, Aug. 8, at the Orange County Law Enforcement Vehicle Operations Training Center in Mount Dora.