Drive sober, don't text and use seatbelts

LIMA — Allen County Probate and Juvenile Court Judge Todd Kohlrieser discussed the impaired and distracted driving juvenile cases his court handles and the consequences of committing those driving offenses Friday at the Allen County Probate and Juvenile Court’s ACCESS Center.

“Typically when we think of OVIs, we think about adults that are out on the streets after having a night out drinking at a bar, driving and causing accidents. But unfortunately, OVIs aren’t just limited to adults, it’s something that juveniles are also committing,” Kohlrieser said. “People associate OVIs typically with alcohol abuse and use, but unfortunately we’re seeing more and more individuals, both adults and juveniles, committing OVIs with the use of abusing drugs, prescription drugs, and other intoxicants to get high and are complicating that matter by getting behind the wheel and driving.”

Kohlrieser said between 2021 and 2023 in Allen County Juvenile Court, there have been juveniles as young as 15 years old charged with OVIs, and the youngest juvenile he could think of who was charged with an OVI was 14 years old. During that time period, the court averaged seven to 10 juvenile OVI cases per year, and 64% involved drugs.

A juvenile convicted of OVI can receive fines, incarceration, probation and license suspensions, Kohlrieser said.

He sees the importance of teaching juveniles the seriousness of traffic offenses and saw the effects of drugs and alcohol as an assistant prosecutor in Lima Municipal Court, so he oversees every juvenile court traffic offense.

“A lot of judges don’t handle the traffic offenses but I do. I believe they’re some of the most important cases that we handle in juvenile court, so I handle every one that comes to court,” Kohlrieser said. “I try to instill good driving habits and help teach as much as possible from the bench when I handle a juvenile traffic offense. Sometimes I have to use the dad voice and try to be stern with the juveniles, but if that’s what it takes to try to prevent them from committing offenses and making bad decisions, then that’s what I’ll do and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

Kohlrieser suggested if someone plans to be impaired, have a plan and a designated driver.

“As a parent, I’d much rather get the phone call saying ‘I can’t drive because I’ve been drinking, can you come and pick me up?’” Kohlrieser said.

Other than OVIs, other traffic offenses Kohlrieser handles are distracted driving and seat belt violations.

“There’s no reason to use a cell phone while you’re operating a vehicle. We take those very seriously in juvenile court,” Kohlrieser said. “If a juvenile comes into court and they’re adjudicated of using a cell phone, it’s an automatic license suspension with mandatory fines. They can be placed on probation.”

Teens sometimes don’t take their court proceedings seriously, and Kohlrieser mentioned some of the ways the court tries to help teens be better drivers and stay away from drugs and alcohol.

“The best way that we can educate is to instill better behaviors, better driving techniques, give them the resources that we have through community control, through the court system, as well as through our community partners,” Kohlrieser said. “Place them on community control, have them participate in drug and alcohol counseling, driving safety, driving improvement programs that we have, hopefully to help them realize that they don’t need to use alcohol and drugs, that there are other avenues that they can use to have fun, and they don’t need to place themselves in danger.”

One such program is the Ready-Assess driving simulator, which uses a PlayStation video game steering wheel with pedals and a computer screen showing a car’s interior. The program gives the driver commands like turning, looking in the side mirrors and stopping.

“The Ready-Assess program is something we refer juveniles to on various charges to hopefully educate them, to give them another opportunity to figure out what their driving habits are, and then hopefully correct those through kind of a fun process,” Kohlrieser said.

Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.