Posted on 01/01/2013 7:44:23 AM PST by Kaslin
Unlicensed drivers are nearly three times likelier than licensed drivers to cause a fatal crash in California. Indeed, unlicensed drivers are likelier to cause fatal crashes than drivers who have had their licenses suspended or revoked. So found a new study released by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
The study recommended "the use of countermeasures, including vehicle impoundment," to save lives.
That's a problem for San Francisco. In 2009, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom said police would allow unlicensed drivers to avoid a 30-day impound if they could find someone with a license to drive away their car in 20 minutes.
Then-police Chief (current District Attorney) George Gascon told the San Francisco Chronicle the city wanted to be sensitive to those who "can't get a driver's license because of their immigration status." He later told me that the city also wanted to accommodate others who could not afford driver training -- that is, people who might or might not know how to drive safely.
That policy seemed reckless and wrong to me. As the Los Angeles Police Protective League blogged in opposition to a similar LA policy, "there are two fundamental reasons ... vehicle impounding of unlicensed drivers is smart law enforcement. First, an unlicensed driver willing to ignore the law is, at least temporarily, less likely to further violate this law because he or she will not have access to the impounded vehicle. Second, the cost and inconvenience of recovering an impounded vehicle discourages people without licenses from driving. That is precisely why the state (Legislature) enacted the 30-day hold law."
Don Rosenberg blames San Francisco's lax attitude for his son Drew's death. In November 2010, an unlicensed driver made a left turn and hit Drew and his motorcycle. Drew Rosenberg died after Roberto Galo backed up over his body.
Five months earlier, San Francisco police had stopped Galo for driving the wrong way on a one-way street and driving without a license. The city impounded Galo's car but released it to a licensed driver the next day. Galo was driving that car in the fatal crash.
"In no circumstance does the Police Department allow either a person without a driver's license or a person with a suspended license to maintain control of a vehicle," Chief Greg Suhr told me. Technically true, but City Hall policy invites them to get their cars back.
Advocates for illegal immigration have argued that the answer is to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. Would that make a difference? Galo was a legal immigrant. He could have obtained a license, but he didn't. (The study noted that the "over-involvement rate" of unlicensed drivers didn't change after a 1994 state law required documentation of legal status; the rate should have fallen if safe drivers were denied licenses.)
"Everybody has to obey the rules of the road," Rosenberg said -- unless you're an unlicensed driver in San Francisco.
City government goes out of its way to get people out of their cars. Parking is scarce and pricey. Good San Franciscans are urged to take public transit -- unless they're unlicensed and nearly three times as likely to kill someone in a car crash. Then City Hall wants them to have a car.
And impound the car. But that was done away with DUI’s.
Knowing Saunders, she feels exactly the same way about guns.
Unlicensed driver <- undocumented resident <- illegal alien.
Feinstein needs to look into this and the Hollywood Stars and
make sure automobiles are banned from public use — this would stop illegal driving! (Huge Slice of Sarcasm)
Of course this video makes the same point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1SZurGArxE
It’s not that licensing makes you safer. It’s that responsible people follow rules.
People with licenses are precisely the people who don’t need them.
Not unlicensed, illegal citizens of other countries, mostly Mexicans.
The insanity is destroying our country by actually worrying about illegals rather than sending them home.
We have to keep hearing that America will soon be a “minority country” when this is being engineered through illegal immigration to bring about a leftist democrat takeover.
“It’s not that licensing makes you safer. It’s that responsible people follow rules. People with licenses are precisely the people who don’t need them.”
To put it more simply, the education/training that goes into earning a drivers’ license is usually lacking in someone that doesn’t bother getting one.
On a related note, these illegals wouldn’t even be here if Americans would just have families.
Just not immigration laws.
I got the wrong thread. Was expecting to see a gun owner topic. While here I will leave my .02.
THERE SHOULD BE NO LICENSES FOR ANY ILLEGAL ALIEN. What part of ILLEGAL do they not understand?? We all need to copy Maricopa Joe. Happy New Year...
You should hear the screeching of the liberals over Rick Snyder signing the bill that requires abortion clinics to be licensed and have an actual doctor on site.
I disagree somewhat with that. The only direction, and it should be One-Way is for them to be allowed to drive south, until they reach Mexico
Trying to find a spot in your sentence to inject a little more sarcasm and found none. Nicely put.
Even though she had a full license, we didn't allow her to drive alone for some time.
I thought about a second paragraph on understanding Latino rage, but it didn’t quite come together.
Good on you not letting her drive full time. Most young people think as soon as they get their drivers license they are experienced enough to speed, and nothing happens to them.
I was 26 when I made my drivers license. My instructer, that I had hired told me that it takes 10 years to know if you are a good driver or not.
I am not sure if I understand you. Do you mean that peoples with drivers licenses do not need to follow the rules?
No, I mean people who get licenses are people who will follow rules and behave well (on the whole) regardless of licenses; people who don’t get licenses (but are supposed to) won’t follow rules requiring them to. Making more rules to control the latter won’t work because the targeted group is defined by not following rules, so you just end up hassling the rule followers even more.
Licensing controls exactly the wrong people. ...be they drivers or gun owners.
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