What is Missouri Traffic School?
Everyday across The Show-Me State, motorists and their families pile into their vehicles to travel to work, school, fun activities, and so on. What is not expected is that traffic accidents and obtaining moving traffic violations is not an uncommon occurrence. As shown in the 2011 Missouri Traffic Safety Compendium, 51, 846 persons were either killed or injured in all traffic accidents that occurred that year. To put this into perspective, that's one person every 10.1 minutes. If you received a moving traffic violation or want to learn how to prevent yourself and your family from becoming a part of this statistic, the Missouri Online Driver Improvement program is here to help.
Why Drivers Take a Missouri Traffic School Course
According to the Department of Public Safety and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, 786 Persons were killed in traffic-related crashes in 2011 just in the State of Missouri. The Missouri driver improvement program, also known as a Missouri traffic school course, is here to promote driver safety and reduce the amount of car accidents that occur each day.
Whether the program is completed online or in a classroom setting, the class will take you a total of eight hours to complete. Throughout the instructional course, you will be taught driving essentials, including how to become a great defensive driver, what do in an emergency, the effects drugs and alcohol have on your body and driving skills, and more. Because a Missouri traffic school program will teach you all the fundamentals you need to learn how to be a defensive driver, many motorists take the program for this reason. Being a safe driver will not only help you, but also your family and other motorists throughout your driving career.
Another reason drivers choose to take a Missouri driver improvement program is to keep their auto insurance rates low. Depending on your current auto insurance provider, you may be able to receive a discount on your monthly dues just by participating in a Missouri traffic school course. (Please contact your current auto insurance company before completing our course solely to receive a discount.)
The main and most popular reason motorists opt to participate in a driver improvement program, however, is to remove a traffic violation and/or points from their Missouri driving records. By taking a Missouri traffic school course to remove an existing traffic violation, you will keep your Missouri driving record free of blemishes.
Eligibility/How It Works
Which county you reside in will dictate the process to enrolling in a driver improvement program. All traffic citations are submitted to the Fine Collection Center, or FCC. Once your violation is sent to the FCC, there are specific counties that are granted an automatic approval for driver improvement. If your county is listed, then you are eligible for traffic school without hesitation as long as you plead "Guilty" to your violation. However, other counties require the FCC to re-route your traffic violation to the court, where you may need to appear in person to request permission to participate in driver improvement. If your county is not listed, plead "Not Guilty" to the FCC and then attend your court hearing. Here is where you will plead "Guilty" to the judge and request to complete a driver improvement course.
After you have completed these first steps, you will experience easy sailing from here on out. Once you know you are eligible, simply Register for the Missouri Driver Improvement course. If you were approved by the FCC, you will have to complete the course within 60 days. At the courthouse, the judge will generally give you a similar, if not the same, time frame.
Once you graduate from the course, your certificate will be available in your course dashboard in five business days. It will be your responsibility to make sure the courthouse receives a copy!
Points and Your Missouri Driving Record
The point system is simple: the more points you accumulate on your Missouri driving record, the more privileges you could lose.
You gain points on your driving record whenever you are found or plead guilty to disobeying traffic laws. The amount of points assessed on your driving record is determined by the type of violation you received and its severity. Once you build up a large amount of points, your driving privileges will suffer. Penalties of acquiring too many points on your Missouri driving record include, but are not limited to:
- Suspended license
- Limited driving privilege permit
- License revocation
If you are suffering from any of the consequences listed above or others due to the high number of points on your driving record, you will need to contact the Department of Revenue for further instruction.
For more information on the Missouri point system, Click Here.