By Chris Mitchell News13 on Your Side July 23, 2002

13-year old Wesley Wright can't wait until the day he's able to drive. "It would be a different experience because I've never driven anything before," says Wright. "It just seems fun watching my mom."

Carrie Stephenson, Wright's mother, says she's nervous about her son's upcoming driving days. "It's just dangerous," says Stephenson. "Boys, especially, like to drive fast and wreckless." But she may soon breath a little easier. Her son's future high school drivers' education class may be better funded with more hands-on training.

The Florida Legislature passed the "Dori Slosberg Driver Education Safety Act" during the 2002 Legislative Session. The Act gives each of the state's 67 board of county commissioners the authority to increase civil traffic fines by $3 to supplement school driving education programs.

The state measure was named after 14 year-old Dori Slosberg, daughter of state Rep. Irving Slosberg, D-Boca Raton. Dori was killed in a car crash with another teenager driving.

Bay County commissioners will decide on Tuesday whether or not to move forward with adopting an ordinance to raise civil traffic fines to supplement local driving school budgets. Bay County currently spends over $200-thousand dollars for salaries and equipment for the school district's driver education programs at each of its four high schools. If Bay County had the ability to collect the extra fee in traffic fines in 2000, the County would have been able to spend an additional $110,000 more on its driver education programs.

There are no drivers' education programs in Bay County during the summer, but Mosley High School's Assistant Principal for Guidance, Brooke Loyed says the extra money could be used to start one. "I think that would be very important," she says, since a summer program wouldn't interfere with taking other electives during the school year.

"We always have a lot of students who want driver's ed," she says about teenagers trying to get enrolled during the school year, "and we try to get them all in. But sometimes we have to wait until next year to get drivers ed."

State officials rate car crashes as the number one cause of death among teenage drivers. Many parents and school officials hope county commissioners will pass the ordinance providing for more drivers education funding. State Rep. Slosberg is leading the effort to get county leaders to adopt this ordinance and will be present at Tuesday's Bay County Commission meeting to push for the ordinance.

St. Lucie county commissioners have already adopted the ordinance, and Slosberg hopes the other 66 counties will follow their lead. Bay County Commissioners will meet Tuesday morning at 8:45 at the Panama City-City Hall.