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Driving tests to resume in Hillsborough County without examiners inside cars

The examiner will, instead, be on speakerphone with another passenger in the car.

TAMPA, Fla. — Hundreds of people who have been waiting for weeks to get their driver’s license in Hillsborough County will finally be able to do so starting Monday.

The county is opening three locations, but with one major change. In addition to social distancing procedures, the person giving the exam won’t be in the car.

Chances are when you got your first driver’s license, there was someone sitting in the car with you, telling you to turn left, turn right, stop and park.

But, because of COVID-19, driving tests will be given with the examiner outside the car.

“My instructor, or my tester, is looking at every move that they make,” said Hillsborough tax Collector Doug Belden, whose office administers the tests. “And then they are graded on the criteria that they pass those maneuvers, which has been approved by the depart Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.”

Belden says the process will work like this:

A licensed driver at least 21 years old has to come along to the driving course. That person will sit in the passenger seat and put the examiner on speakerphone.

The driver then takes the instructions from the examiner on speakerphone.

All of this is being done to maintain a safe social distance.

“I cannot consciously put a person that’s a retiree, that may have underlying conditions that we don’t know about, next to a young person who may be infected but asymptomatic,” Belden said. “We can’t take that chance.”

Belden says he’s confident the system will still accurately identify those ready to get their license and those who aren’t.

But, drivers who did it the old-fashioned way are split on the idea.

“I think it would be safe,” said Queen Moreno, who stopped by one of the three test locations Thursday. “Most of them that are going to take a test already know how to drive because they took driver’s ed at school."

But Ruben Villar, who was at the same office a bit earlier, wasn’t so sure.

“I feel it would probably be better with the instructor in the car. I’m used to the old way. With the instructor in the car,” Villar said. “Just so they can see hands-on how the driver is doing. Because I prefer to drive out here where people know how to drive. Because there’s a lot of people who don’t know how to drive out here. And that’s how it can cause accidents.”

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Drivers can expect to see distancing signs when they show up at the testing locations. Temperatures will be taken, too.

There will be no walk-in testing allowed. The driving exams will be given by appointment only – set up by phone, or through the Hillsborough tax collector’s website.

Belden says all three of the county’s road test course locations will be open at the same time to try to address the backlog.

“We will catch up very quickly because we’re not just operating one track, we are operating three.,” he said.

Belden says all of his policy decisions are being driven by scientific data and his own meetings with county health leaders.

Any changes in those policies, including putting examiners back in cars, will be made, he said, using those same criteria.

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