City Council to vote on Internet traffic school

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 | 9:15 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday will consider a contract that would create the city's first Internet traffic school.

The online school for Las Vegas Municipal Court would be similar to one already offered by Clark County and would designate a California-based traffic school as the city's sole provider of the service.

The council is slated to vote on the contract with The On-Line Traffic School Inc., of West Lake Village, Calif.

Motorists would pay $39 for the basic online course, which is $4 more than the comparable classroom course, officials said.

The city contract with the Internet class provider would allow the city to collect $31 from each motorist and the online provider would get the remaining $8, said Kathy Rainey, the city's manager of purchasing contracts. She said nine companies submitted proposals.

For a five-hour basic traditional classroom course, a motorist pays $35. The city collects $31 and the instructor is paid $4.

Las Vegas Municipal Court Administrator Jim Carmany said more serious offenders would not be eligible for the Internet course. Those motorists would have to take eight-hour traditional traffic school programs that cost $75 for drunken driving, $100 for the repeat offenders and $150 for the most serious offenders.

Carmany said successfully completing the online program, which is approved by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, would result in a motorist having at least three points deducted from his driving record.

Traditional traffic school in Nevada is an eight-hour, single-session class, but the Internet traffic course can be completed at the motorist's convenience.

"With our 12-chapter program you can work at your leisure and take the course over a couple weeks," said Hardy Warren, co-owner of The On-Line Traffic School, which began in 1997 and was approved by the Los Angeles County Court. "You can take our traffic school course anytime 24 hours a day."

In 2001, more than 18,000 people attended traffic school in the city of Las Vegas. This year, Rainey said, it is estimated that by year's end, 19,464 motorists will have gone to traffic school in the city.

Warren says based on past performance, about 20 to 40 percent of traditional traffic school students would take the Internet course. Many of those motorists prefer the convenience and some just want to avoid the being seen in traffic school, he said.

The company's program currently is available in 20 Nevada locales, including Reno and at Clark County Justice Court -- not as an exclusive Internet traffic school like it would be in Las Vegas but as one of several programs offered.

The On-Line Traffic School operates in 22 states, providing its course for about 50,000 students each year, Warren said