An hour’s driving evaluation does not sound like a capricious nor a malicious decision. This sounds like people actually taking efforts to act for the safety of the man in question and innocent bystanders on the roads. Given the age of the man in question, while it’s not impossible he’s still competent to drive, I’m not seeing it as unlikely for him to be objectively unable to safely drive.
Like raindog, my grandmother kept driving for a couple of years after we should have talked her into stopping driving. She ended up, after getting into an avoidable collision (ran a red light, because she couldn’t imagine that two lights in close proximity wouldn’t be synchronized), deciding that her daughter had been right to tell her that she really shouldn’t be driving any longer. Fortunately the only damage was to property.
People in general are not the best judges of their own driving ability. Further, the loss of autonomy that losing a driver’s license engenders is going to make the pulling of a license a much more emotional issue than it might be otherwise.
My father served in the Korean war/police action/whatever, and he’s 78. And most people who are that age or older should absolutely NOT be driving. There is the occasional person who is competent to drive at that age…but even though my dad is all there, mentally, his reflexes are shot, and so is his vision. He just can’t react quickly enough any longer to be driving on a public road.
Most people will fight tooth and nail to keep their driving privileges, because in the US, someone who can’t drive is completely at the mercy of others to get anywhere. Taxis are not that reliable in most cities, and they’re damned expensive. If bus or train service is available, there’s generally quite a bit of hiking from one stop to the next…and again, busses and trains are generally not that reliable. People also just don’t want to admit that their abilities have decreased to the point where driving is dangerous to themselves and others.
I’m wondering how one can take left turns too wide, other than plowing into parked cars or ending up on the sidewalk. Here in Missouri, left turns may be into any lane that’s legal to drive in, while right turns are to be into the rightmost lane that’s practicable. However, many people don’t know the law and think (erroneously) that left turns are to be into the leftmost lane practicable. Maybe your state has a different law on this, or maybe these “VA ladies” only THINK they know the law and are unfairly condemning his driving. I’d say the matter bears some investigation.
An hour? AN HOUR? AN HOUR?!? How in God’s name does it take AN HOUR to evaluate someone’s driving? A regular driving test (actual driving portion) takes what, ten minutes? I’d sure want to know what required TWO people’s time for an hour that couldn’t have been done in ten minutes or less. Do they make old folks drive around until they can finally catch them in a mistake?
This situation, as presented, doesn’t smell right.
I have no problem with rescinding driving privileges of those who are not capable of driving safely. I do have a problem with railroading people into something that isn’t fair to them. Was his license taken because HE can’t drive right, or because he’s old and OTHER old people can’t drive right?
My driver’s test when I was 16 took 45 minutes. There’s a lot of stuff to go through, and if you’re in a city, it takes a while to get around. An hour isn’t unreasonable.
I think that an hour is reasonable. I don’t remember how long my last behind-the-wheel exam took, but I had to drive in various conditions (turning into one way streets, making U turns, parking, etc.) and basically, I had to demonstrate that I could perform most driving skills that would normally be called upon.
Gary T, all we have is NurseCarmen’s re-telling of a one-sided story told by an aggrieved man. We don’t know all the facts.
It sounds like something triggered a re-evaluation of the man’s driving skills; perhaps a change in medication or uncontrolled hypertension or some other health problem. Two women took him out for an hour to directly observe his driving, and when they observed that he was driving in an unsafe manner, recommended that he lose his driver’s license. It may not have been for too-wide left turns, but for something else that the man has chosen to interpret as a deficiency in left-hand turns.
All I’m saying here is that, with only one side of the story, there is no way anyone can give good advice.
Right. If this was an officially authorized action (e.g. if the ladies at the VA (I assume you mean “Veterans Administration”) were authorized by the state motor vehicle agency to revoke licenses for either medical reasons or because they witnessed the driver committing a traffic offense, then going through the agency or talking to an attorney experienced in license suspensions might be in order. If it’s just a matter of someone taking the physical license, then the dad should just be able to go to the DMV counter and say that their physical license was stolen and request another one. E.g. if you show your DL to a priest, and he refuses to give it back, telling you that he is giving you a “penance” of driver’s license loss, you can get it back with the law on your side, since clergy would not normally be authorized by the law to do this.
In Virginia, there’s a website where you can go if your DL is suspended that is supposed to spell out the conditions necessary to get it back. Fortunately, I’ve never had to use it.
AIUI, when a license is taken away for medical reasons, the doctor sends a form in to the state’s DMV that states the driver’s medical condition, then the form is reviewed, then the license is taken away. The doctor himself does not revoke the license, but he makes the recommendation to do so to the state based on his experience, training, and judgment.
Here is the information for Pennsylvania (where I live) and Minnesota (where the OP lives).
Working in an ophthalmology office, I’ve seen patients bring in forms trying to get their DL restored when it was previously taken for vision reasons. Sometimes the doctor agrees that vision has improved enough to drive again, or specifies that it would be OK with extra mirrors or no night driving or something, and sometimes he or she doesn’t think it’s a good idea and won’t sign the papers.
If Nurse Carmen truly believes that there has been some kind of conspiracy by the man’s son to isolate this guy, he needs to help the man find out how to appeal the loss of a license. Then the proper channels will judge whether or not it was appropriate. However, plenty of people (regardless of age) are really shitty drivers, and age only makes that worse.
I spoke to him again, and it seems he has come to terms with it. I asked him if he was getting food and groceries, and it turns out there are friends and neighbors and others helping him out. Loser son continues to be loser son, but it sounds like between friends and neighbors, he’s handling it.
I agree with some of the folks here that maybe he was too old and I shouldn’t try to get him back on the road, but I couldn’t help it. When I talked to him after it happened, he was obviously very distraught and sad. The dude went through a lot for our country, and I just figured that he needed someone to fight for him a little.
Thanks for all the input, especially some of the offline help.