ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A newly surfaced video obtained by News 6 reveals an incident involving an Orange County deputy sheriff allegedly veering a motorist off the road.
The dashcam footage captures a tense moment experienced by Ivan Schiffino around 10 a.m. on Saturday as he made his way home from his shift at Walt Disney World.
[WATCH: Full dashcam video of the incident with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office vehicle]
The video provided by Schiffino seems to depict the Sheriff’s Office vehicle aggressively crossing a painted divider, an area meant to separate merging lanes from travel lanes, as it merged from I-4 onto World Center Drive. Notably, the vehicle did not signal during this maneuver.
“The striped area you observe near exits is known as a gore area, which is not designated for driving,” explained News 6 Traffic Safety Expert Steve Montiero.
Montiero referenced Florida Statute 316.089 to underscore the rules governing such traffic zones.
“You have to stay in a real lane, and those stripes aren’t one. They’re there to separate traffic and keep things safe. When you cut through it at the last second to make an exit, it catches other drivers off guard and can cause crashes. You can get a ticket for it,” said Montiero.
[WATCH: Trooper Steve on Patrol explains things you may want to know on the road]
Schiffino told News 6 the deputy nearly hit him.
“If I would have been the one doing that, I probably would end up with reckless driving, probably in jail,” Schiffino told News 6. “It’s hard. I don’t know if he had an emergency to go to, but yeah, he was driving recklessly.”
Schiffino’s dash camera video shows both vehicles driving into the grassy median. The video appears to show the deputy make a U-turn, activate the patrol vehicle lights, then leave the scene without checking on Schiffino.
“I was expecting him to stop, but he put his lights on and left, and I wasn’t going to chase him,” Schiffino said.
He claimed the deputy acknowledged him, even making eye contact.
“He did something with his hand, but I’m not 100 percent sure,” Schiffino said.
He told News 6 driving into the median caused some minor damage to the front of his car, but he is glad no one got hurt.
“If I didn’t have a dash cam and I hit him, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been nice for me in court,” Schiffino said.
Over the past three days, News 6 has repeatedly tried to get answers from Orange County Sheriff John Mina. His agency has not explained whether that deputy was responding to an emergency call. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has not said if it is investigating the matter.
