May I See Your License?
Some people consider driving a privilege, others a necessity, still others a right. However one considers it, a license is necessary. It can sometimes be a difficult skill to learn. Ask my daughter; she tried during most of last winter to learn how to manage a car without causing a seven-car pile-up, and has decided to save us from disaster until she can fully coordinate mind and body. Sometimes, though, it's quite easy, the only problem is the bureaucracy surrounding the license.
One man found out after losing all his points and going to exam to recuperate them. Spain has a system of points to keep a license going. We all start out with a maximum of twelve. If we don't lose any during a certain amount of time, we are given three more. But points are easily lost. Almost any fine comes with a loss in points. If you are indiscreet enough to have Tráfico cops stop you often and present you with love letters, you can lose all of them. At that point your license turns into wet toilet paper. To be able to drive again, you can wait to automatically recuperate some, or go to a written exam. Last year, a man in Huesca went to a scheduled exam to recuperate points. The police noticed that one of the cars parked in the lot belonged to one of the examinees. After the exam they followed it and realized the examinee was driving all by himself. Ergo, he had driven to the exam center without a valid license. Back to square one.
There was also the man in Barcelona who wished he had a car. So he did the next best thing. He spiffed up his wheelchair with a juiced-up motor and hit the streets. He was videotaped this past summer, driving his chair down a busy street, even overtaking and passing cars. Let's say the wheelchair was no impediment to getting around the city for this man. Also, that he was a frustrated Formula 1 race car driver.
Then there's the seventy-four year-old woman from Ferrol. Presently of Ferrol, lately of Ourense, Córdoba, and Santiago. She needed a method of transport to move around. She has since adduced that in 1963, before Tráfico and the modern system of licenses were introduced in Spain, she passed her driving license. It was a different method back then, driving between two sticks and several other maneuvers, all within an enclosed lot. She passed, but shortly before going to pick up her license, her baby died, and then her grandmother, who was living with her. With the ensuing depression she forgot all about the necessary paper shuffling. Later, when the new licenses came into being, she went to exchange her old permit for the new, but she didn't show on the old lists as having acquired permission to drive. But by then she was driving, so the absence of a piece of paper didn't bother her.
It hasn't bothered her for fifty-three years. In that time she has also lived in Córdoba and driven on a regular basis across the Spanish geography to Ferrol, to see her new son living in the care of relatives. She had been stopped sometimes but always said she had left her license at home. She had never been fined for anything. She had never had an accident. Until October of 2014. She was accused of scratching someone's car, which she denied. When the local police showed up at her house to tell her she had been denounced by the other driver, it was discovered she had never had a valid license. She went to court this past month and sentenced to a month of community service. But now she can't drive to wherever she has to do it. And she claims her health does not allow her to walk very far and that she needs to be able to drive. She also claims that after 53 years of driving without a license and never having had an accident, she should be awarded permission to drive.
And, given most people's track record of bumps and crashes behind the wheel, I think she should.
One man found out after losing all his points and going to exam to recuperate them. Spain has a system of points to keep a license going. We all start out with a maximum of twelve. If we don't lose any during a certain amount of time, we are given three more. But points are easily lost. Almost any fine comes with a loss in points. If you are indiscreet enough to have Tráfico cops stop you often and present you with love letters, you can lose all of them. At that point your license turns into wet toilet paper. To be able to drive again, you can wait to automatically recuperate some, or go to a written exam. Last year, a man in Huesca went to a scheduled exam to recuperate points. The police noticed that one of the cars parked in the lot belonged to one of the examinees. After the exam they followed it and realized the examinee was driving all by himself. Ergo, he had driven to the exam center without a valid license. Back to square one.
There was also the man in Barcelona who wished he had a car. So he did the next best thing. He spiffed up his wheelchair with a juiced-up motor and hit the streets. He was videotaped this past summer, driving his chair down a busy street, even overtaking and passing cars. Let's say the wheelchair was no impediment to getting around the city for this man. Also, that he was a frustrated Formula 1 race car driver.
Then there's the seventy-four year-old woman from Ferrol. Presently of Ferrol, lately of Ourense, Córdoba, and Santiago. She needed a method of transport to move around. She has since adduced that in 1963, before Tráfico and the modern system of licenses were introduced in Spain, she passed her driving license. It was a different method back then, driving between two sticks and several other maneuvers, all within an enclosed lot. She passed, but shortly before going to pick up her license, her baby died, and then her grandmother, who was living with her. With the ensuing depression she forgot all about the necessary paper shuffling. Later, when the new licenses came into being, she went to exchange her old permit for the new, but she didn't show on the old lists as having acquired permission to drive. But by then she was driving, so the absence of a piece of paper didn't bother her.
It hasn't bothered her for fifty-three years. In that time she has also lived in Córdoba and driven on a regular basis across the Spanish geography to Ferrol, to see her new son living in the care of relatives. She had been stopped sometimes but always said she had left her license at home. She had never been fined for anything. She had never had an accident. Until October of 2014. She was accused of scratching someone's car, which she denied. When the local police showed up at her house to tell her she had been denounced by the other driver, it was discovered she had never had a valid license. She went to court this past month and sentenced to a month of community service. But now she can't drive to wherever she has to do it. And she claims her health does not allow her to walk very far and that she needs to be able to drive. She also claims that after 53 years of driving without a license and never having had an accident, she should be awarded permission to drive.
And, given most people's track record of bumps and crashes behind the wheel, I think she should.
Comments
Post a Comment