{"id":151309,"date":"2026-02-11T07:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151309\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T07:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:10:15","slug":"sheriffs-office-strives-to-curtail-motorcycle-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151309\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff’s Office strives to curtail motorcycle deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prompted by rising motorcycle-related deaths, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> hopes to make a difference with its 7-year-old safety training course for people riding the bikes.<\/p>\n

Five motorcyclists had died on Jacksonville roads as of Thursday. Police say there were 44 deaths last year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Northeast Florida Criminal Justice Center<\/a> (the Police Academy on Capper Road), training officers alarmed by the number of deaths voluntarily teach the S.M.A.R.T. class<\/a> \u2014 short for Safe Motorcycle And Rider Techniques.<\/p>\n

Officer Jason Corse says the 21 students present Saturday were not all Harley guys. There were two adventure bikes, two enduros and four sport bikes.<\/p>\n

Corse says the department wants more sport bike riders to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to say that the demographic that\u2019s getting into a lot of these crashes are sport bike riders, but we want sport bikes out here for this training,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Officer Jason Corse instructs a motorcycle student on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Raymund Alcobendas, 27, was there to learn. He stood next to his sport bike, a 2025 Honda CVR 650R, on which he admits he\u2019s had some close calls \u2014 sometimes his fault, sometimes other drivers\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I think it\u2019s important to take these courses to become proficient with your motorcycle because you sometimes never know when it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Alcobendas said. \u201cAnd then, in that instance, you\u2019re going to react based on instinct and what you\u2019ve been trained for, versus you don\u2019t have much time to think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcobendas considers himself a conservative rider. He\u2019s completed the basic rider course and the follow-up, Basic Rider Course 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this JSO course definitely does a very good job of, instead of just knowing how to ride the bike, but how to ride it effectively and safely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Motorcycle safety drills<\/p>\n

The students practice on a driving pad using their own motorcycles, maneuvering around safety cones. At one point, half the class peeled off toward a paved area in what\u2019s called a \u201cBrake and escape\u201d exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we do a lot of braking exercises, front brake, rear brake, both brakes together,\u201d Corse said. \u201cAnd then we add an escape element where they have to contend with a figurative object in the road to get away from it. We help you realize just how good and bad your brakes are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instructors demonstrate at 30 mph, using their rear brake only. They repeat it at 30 mph, using their front brake only.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the reason we do that,\u201d Corse said, \u201cis to show you how much better the front brake is than the rear brake. They\u2019ll do it a third time, at 30 miles an hour, with their front, rear and rear brake together, and a downshift, just to show you how good the brakes are when they\u2019re used properly together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Twenty-one bikers attended the motorcycle safety class offered Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, by the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

The six-hour class is designed to cover essential riding techniques, including proper head and eye positioning during turns, bike leaning for tighter turns and effective manipulation of the clutch, throttle and brake.<\/p>\n

A facebook video about the JSO Motorcycle Safety Course<\/a> informs riders that they will learn important techniques to stay safe while riding with Motor Unit officers who work one on one with them.<\/p>\n

Despite all the training, Corse pinpoints speed<\/a> as the cause of the majority of traffic fatalities in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a lot of guys running red lights at high speed,\u201d he said. \u201cThe problem we are finding with that is, most average drivers making a turn cannot judge a motorcycle coming at them at a high rate of speed. So that\u2019s why we\u2019re saying, please slow down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The free course is funded by the Florida Department of Transportation. Upcoming classes are Feb. 28, March 14 and March 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prompted by rising motorcycle-related deaths, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office hopes to make a difference with its 7-year-old safety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-151309","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\/151309","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=151309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}