The S.M.A.R.T. Motorcycle Safety Course<\/a> was held Saturday morning at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Police Academy, where riders worked directly with Motor Unit officers to improve their riding skills and safety awareness.<\/p>\nAccording to JSO, five motorcyclists have died in crashes in Jacksonville so far this year.<\/p>\n
JSO Motor Unit Officer Jason Corse said speed continues to be a major factor in many of the crashes they investigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlow down,\u201d Corse said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the biggest things we find with most of these crashes \u2014 speed is a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n
S.M.A.R.T. stands for Street Motorcycle and Riding Techniques. The course pairs riders one-on-one with motor officers and focuses on emergency braking, slow-speed control and hazard avoidance. Participants used their own motorcycles.<\/p>\n
Corse said running red lights combined with speeding is another dangerous trend officers see far too often.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeed in front of a red light is a bad combination,\u201d Corse said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we do the braking escape exercise. It simulates having to stop in a straight line and then avoid an obstacle. Anybody can go fast, but being able to stop that motorcycle in a designated space is what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
JSO offers the free course 10 times a year and says it\u2019s designed for both new riders and experienced riders looking to sharpen their skills.<\/p>\n
One participant, Raymond Alcobendas, said the training is essential after experiencing multiple close calls on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been more close calls than I\u2019d like to say,\u201d Alcobendas said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s my fault, sometimes it\u2019s not. That\u2019s why these courses are important \u2014 so we know how to handle those emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
JSO says instructors repeat exercises as many times as needed to ensure riders fully understand how to control their motorcycles in high-risk situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want them to take something from this course,\u201d Corse said. \u201cIf they want more reps, we do it again and again so they can really learn the ins and outs of their machine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s course was filled to capacity, but riders who missed it can register for the next S.M.A.R.T. Motorcycle Safety Course scheduled for Feb. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JSO Motor Unit Officer Jason Corse said speed continues to be a major factor in many of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-147364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}