Doctor’s Note Not Always Enough to Avoid Road Test

Dear Street Smart:

Recently, I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my driver’s license. I paid my fee, passed the eye test and the written test, only to be told I had to take a road test. It seems those who need assistance with walking must do so because of a ruling in July, 1991.

I have had a hip replacement and use a walker. I had with me a doctor’s statement that I am physically and mentally able to drive. I also have a driving record with no strikes against me. I am the first to agree that drivers should not be hazards on the road. But I fail to understand why this inconvenience is being imposed on me. DMV listens to when a doctor says “no” to driving. Why not when he says “yes”?

Wilma Cook, Laguna Hills

Obviously, the DMV doesn’t want drivers on the road who are mentally or physically unable to drive. Doctors help in this by reporting those who are unfit to drive, which they are required to do by law. But not everyone who should gets reported.

For example, some patients see several doctors after a serious accident or injury. Each doctor may assume that another is reporting problems to the DMV. Other doctors don’t wish to “turn in” a driver, fearful that it will damage their relationship with the patient.

“Doctors are indeed hesitant to take that role. They really feel that their place is to treat medically, not to tattletale,” said Gayle San Marco, a driving evaluator with Northridge Hospital Medical Center. The hospital runs a program designed to help the disabled return to driving.

Beyond doctor reports, the DMV gives employees discretion to flag applicants for further testing. For example, an employee who hears that a driver has lost mobility in a leg may decide that the driver should take a road test, to prove that the injury will not be a problem.

“They have to use their judgment,” said DMV spokesman Bill Madison. “Each incident would be taken on a case-by-case basis.”

In your case, a doctor’s note saying “yes” was not an automatic waiver of a road test. Madison added that it has been policy for years to always road test those who need assistance walking, not a change made in 1991.

Even when a doctor gives the OK to drive, there are problems which may appear later.

For example, a patient recovering from a stroke may seem completely recovered but show problems when behind the wheel, said Allison Walz, an occupational therapist who gives driving evaluations at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton. “We’ve seen some various dangerous drivers,” Walz said.

Programs like the one run by St. Jude usually cater to those with severe disabilities, helping them get back behind the wheel. But the programs can evaluate and aid anyone having physical problems, such as those with progressive illnesses.

“Square one is to find out if a person really ought to be behind the wheel,” said Paul Cooper, a driving evaluator and instructor who contracts with hospitals throughout Southern California.

Ignoring physical problems can be the road to disaster. Cooper recalled a man with multiple sclerosis who was evaluated. The man was using his arm to lift his weak leg from the gas to the brake pedal. He failed to get hand controls as recommended, and was later in an accident.

Those who have never driven because of physical problems may want to check in with one of the programs offered by local hospitals.

New driving devices from hand controls to joysticks make it much easier for the disabled to operate a vehicle, Cooper said.

Cooper runs the Adaptive Driving Program and may be reached at: (213) 726-8402. Some hospitals with programs locally are:

St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, (714) 871-3280

La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, (714) 670-6045

Rehabilitation Institute of Orange, (714) 633-7400

UCI Medical Center, (714) 456-5568

Your local DMV office can refer you to a nearby DMV Driver Safety Office, which can answer further questions about drivers with a physical disability.

Dear Street Smart:

When, if ever, will Edwards Street between Ellis and Garfield avenues be open again? When will Garfield between Edwards and Golden West Street be open again?

Fran Conway, Huntington Beach

You only have the summer to wait. Both streets should reopen Oct. 1, according to Huntington Beach Traffic Engineer Jim Otterson. The roads have been closed so that new homes could be built in the area. When they reopen, you’ll be rewarded for your wait with a number of improvements--all paid for by the land developer. They are:

* Wider streets: Edwards will grow to two lanes and Garfield to three lanes in each direction.

* New traffic signals: One will go up at the intersection of Edwards and Garfield, which used to have a stop sign. Another will go up midway along Garfield, at Saddleback Lane.

* New route to coast: Drivers heading south to the ocean along Edwards used to reach a dead-end at Garfield. The dead-end will be gone when things reopen, and drivers will be able to travel along newly extended Seapoint Avenue.

At first, Seapoint will only stretch almost to the coast. But sometime between January and June of next year, drivers will be able to go all the way.

Noreen J. Ayres of Mission Viejo wrote asking for a traffic signal to be installed at the end of the northbound Santa Ana Freeway off-ramp to Oso Parkway. It seems that cars turning left onto Oso from this ramp couldn’t see traffic on their right very well. Sometime they would have to stop turning because of an unseen car, which would block eastbound traffic coming from the right. Ayres wrote:

“I’ve seen the eastbound drivers become so furious at the left-turners that they not only blow their horns long and loud but actually speed up to frighten those turning left. Now, of course, those are bad guys and the left-turners are culpable, too. But not really, the real bad guys are the stupidos who did not plan out the new lights when they were installed a few years back. One more is needed at that exit. So, too, for the crossing at Montanoso Drive, a jig down on Oso. Backups abound, dangerous chances are taken,” Ayres wrote.

Good news about your request. Plans are already underway to install a signal at that ramp.

Mission Viejo has wanted to install a signal at that ramp, but what really convinced Caltrans that it was necessary was the opening of the Oso Parkway extension, said Caltrans spokesman Gerard Sandoval. The extension means that even more traffic will be using that ramp.

Mission Viejo plans to install the signal by the end of the year, if there are no funding problems, according to city transportation engineer Shirley Land.

Two other signals will also be put up, at Montanoso and Country Club drives.