By Annie Reynolds
Starting Friday, Lehi will be the first city in Utah County to switch from an evening traffic school class to an online course.
'The main reason why we''ve decided to do it online is for the convenience of the defendants,' said Sue Asay, lead clerk at the Lehi Justice Court.
Previously, Lehi''s two-hour traffic school course was only offered on Wednesday nights.
'We took a poll in our last three classes and just about everyone in the class would have preferred taking it online,' said teacher Lt. Harold Terry.
'In the past, people have had to take off work, come in, sit through class and work their schedule around our schedule because we only did it once a week,' Asay said. 'This way they can log in at their convenience. They can do it at one o''clock in the morning if they want to.'
Also, the online class makes it easier for non-local traffic violators from the Lehi-area to fulfill traffic violations.
Lehi expects a dramatic increase in out-of-state traffic with the 2005 opening of Cabela''s, a sporting and hunting mega store.
'The first year it is predicted to bring in four million people,' said Sgt. Jeff Swenson of the Lehi police. 'We''re going to get a lot of people from out of state and all over the country coming to this store.'
The online course will allow them to clear their record without having to come back to Lehi.
Swenson added the online course is also going to free up a lot of court time. In the current system, violators come in and the courts have to set them up for a traffic school class.
'This way, all they have to do is make a phone call, get a password and go online,' Swenson said.
The person has 45 days from the date of the citation to complete the program. The online course consists of 18 sections with corresponding quizzes and a final exam.
Other Utah cities have called Lehi with questions about the online course, Asay said, but none are currently planning to make the change. Provo, Orem, Spanish Fork and America Fork do offer a traffic course online, but only to those who are from out of state.
'I think there is some benefit in having people pay the price of coming and sitting in the classroom, listening to the instructions,' said Lt. Doug Edwards of the Orem Police Department.