Northeast Florida Safety Council<\/a> to find out.<\/p>\nBen McCorkel, a former state trooper, demonstrated the basics drivers should follow every time they get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
And it starts even before that.<\/p>\n
McCorkel said drivers should begin with a \u201c360\u201d walk-around before getting in the car. He said to look for children, animals, toys or anything near the vehicle, and to check for leaks or other issues with tire pressure. <\/p>\n
We know, it takes extra time before you leave, but McCorkel\u2019s lesson was clear: prevention comes first.<\/p>\n
And that quick check could be life-saving!<\/p>\n
Once inside the vehicle, McCorkel stressed control and keeping both hands engaged. <\/p>\n
When I tried to adjust and reached back using one hand, McCorkel stopped me and pointed out that one-handed driving reduces control if something goes wrong. <\/p>\n
He said that even taking a hand off the wheel while talking — another common habit — can cost a driver reaction time.<\/p>\n
On the road, McCorkel told me to keep scanning for pedestrians and for vehicles that might enter the roadway unexpectedly. He said some drivers will pull out without waiting, acting as if they come first. <\/p>\n
At a red light, I asked McCorkel how much space drivers should leave behind the car in front of them. He said drivers should stop far enough back to see the front vehicle\u2019s tires touching the pavement.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to turn signals, many drivers think that if they\u2019re already in a turn lane, signaling isn\u2019t necessary. But McCorkel said turn signals should be used every time.<\/p>\n
So what causes most of the crashes we see in Jacksonville?<\/p>\n
In McCorkel\u2019s opinion, it\u2019s speed.<\/p>\n
But he noted that driving too fast isn\u2019t the only issue. Drivers going too slowly can also be dangerous and contribute to crashes.<\/p>\n
At another intersection, I stopped slightly over the line, while another driver was much farther past it. McCorkel said that technically equates to running the red light.<\/p>\n
McCorkel also urges drivers not to text while driving, not to engage with aggressive drivers, and not to play music so loudly that they cannot hear emergency responders approaching.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Anyone who\u2019s spent time driving in Jacksonville knows that close calls are common \u2014 from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,5436,99027,729],"class_list":["post-217803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-morning-show","tag-northeast-florida-safety-council","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217803","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=217803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}