To the Editor:
Commuting around the Washington area is a dual exercise in frustration and near-death experiences. If traffic isn’t slowed to a crawl, it’s racing at break-neck speed with rude, distracted, dangerous drivers.
But no worries, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has discovered our traffic nightmares are actually caused by your homicidal Grandma and they have an immediate solution. The DMV is recommending that based on a recent study, the state should examine the fitness of elderly motorists and grant legal immunity to people who provide information to the state about those who might not be fit to drive.
It’s ridiculous and it’s time for the DMV to slow down and consider reality. Older drivers are more experienced on the road and their generation is well known for respecting the rule of law. They’re less likely to speed, less likely to be impaired by drugs or alcohol, less likely to engage in road rage, and less likely to be talking on a cell phone or texting. In fact, according to a just released survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, only 1 percent of drivers older than 75 say they text while driving.
Suffice it to say, it’s been a long time — if ever — that a speeding, inebriated, irate Grandmother tailgated me down the George Washington Parkway, whizzed by and extended her middle finger. I’d feel safer driving to an AARP convention with a thousand seniors on the road than I would with one younger, texting driver.
But while one group of lawfully abiding residents is about to be scrutinized and possibly “turned in” by others to the authorities, another group of unlawfully abiding drivers and residents — illegal aliens — are being richly rewarded throughout Washington, D.C. and Maryland. Mayor Vincent Gray signed a law that allows them to obtain driver’s licenses. Gray claims it’s a “civil rights issue.” Meanwhile Maryland has also extended driver’s privileges to their illegal aliens, all of whom can and will drive on Virginia roads. And rest assured, with Terry McAuliffe now the newly elected governor of Virginia, it’s only a matter of time before the Commonwealth jumps on the bandwagon. That push is already in motion at the grassroots level.
Our older citizens are not the public enemy and they should not be singled out for restriction. The real threat is a politically correct nanny state imposing more scrutiny on older, experienced drivers. Is there anything more perverse in justice than penalizing those who obey the law while ignoring and or rewarding those who violate it?
Hey DMV, pick on someone your own age.
Bob Dane, Alexandria