‘Drive with a Cop’ event focuses on road safety for teens
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An annual “Drive with a Cop” event saw police officers paired with teens to better understand the rules of the road.
Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputies who are trained driving instructors joined teens at Portland International Raceway. Activities included teens getting behind the wheel in their personal vehicles as a police officer joined them in the passenger seat for hands-on training in a standard test drive course, class instruction, and an “impaired goggles” interactive demo.
A demonstration on how to change tires and put on chains was also given by a sponsor of the event, Les Schwab tires.
Participants also had the opportunity to ride in the passenger seat of a police car while an officer drove at high speeds–up to 100 miles per hours–on the race track.
18-year-old student Jonah Herman said Saturday’s event goes above and beyond the standard driver’s education course.
“It’s an amazing camp, an amazing course for a day. You come down here and you get to learn to a lot about driver’s safety. It’s sort of like driver’s ed 2.0.”
Clackamas County Deputy Sheriff Darryn Kuehl, who instructed Herman, said distracted driving is emphasized in the training.
“Anybody in the vehicle, you’re responsible for yourself and them and then also anybody outside the vehicle. So we teach them all about distracted driving.”
“Our goal is to help save lives on the road,” added Sheriff Craig Roberts.