Monday, November 20, 2006

Re-test drivers...please!

In the wake of today's decision in California concerning George Russell Weller (probation and fines, which is probably the best of a terrible situation - it's hard to send 90-year-old-men-with-failing-health to jail for 18 years, though a little jail time would have been appropriate), can states please begin re-testing people to renew their drivers's licenses? While we may never know if Weller was mentally unable or just an idiot, the fact is that thousands and probably millions of elderly folks whose minds, through no fault of their own, are still driving when they probably should not be. It is up to individual states to determine laws (re-test everybody every 5-10 years, re-test everybody over 65 or 75 or whatever every X years, etc) to legislate and execute laws, but given how thousands of families, including those of the 10 victims and 70 injured in California in 2003, suffer every year when people no longer able to drive continue to do so, demands we address this situation.