All current employees of the city-parish who are authorized to drive municipal vehicles will have to take a four-hour driver safety course every two years, following Metro Council approval Wednesday of an ordinance by Councilman Buddy Amoroso. The ordinance will also apply to new hires authorized to drive municipal vehicles but does not apply to the city-parish’s nearly 1,000 fire, police and EMS employees, who are already required to take driver safety courses. Roughly 700 employees are affected by the ordinance. Amoroso, who took the course himself earlier this month to ensure it would be worthwhile, says he drafted the ordinance in response to the high number of accidents city-parish employees are involved in. Claims settlements are also routinely before the council due to accidents in which employees are at fault. “What we’re trying to do is change the culture of city-parish employees to make them more safety-minded,” he says. The course is expected to cost about $4 per employee. Read a previous Daily Report story here for more details on the course. —Steve Sanoski
Today’s poll question: Do you think a four-hour driver safety course mandated for city-parish employees who drive municipal vehicles will reduce the number of accidents they get in?
