If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times:
“Dad shouldn’t be driving! He’s going to kill someone. We have to get him off the road.”
“Mom’s dangerous on the road! I have to make her stop driving.”
“I have to take Pop’s car keys.”
Inevitably, a huge war ensues. Its a pitched battle because the driver, whatever their actual ability to drive may be, feels their final freedom, the independence of going where they want, when they want, is being challenged.
Truth be told, in Virginia anyway, only one authority can revoke a person’s privilege to drive and that’s the folks that gave it to them originally. Yup. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Fortunately, for all the worried adult children (or spouses or other loved ones) out there that want their parents safely off the road, there is a way to alert DMV that attention needs to be paid to a potentially dangerous driver.
You can file a “Medical Review Request” with DMV and they will see that the driver is made to have a medical review and his or her doctor will have to report to DMV on the driver’s fitness to drive. Best of all, you can submit the request to DMV anonymously!
The form is available in PDF format online and you download it here: www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/pdf/med3.pdf
Or if for some reason that link doesn’t bring it up, try googling: Virginia DMV MED3
One thing is for sure. The harder you try to take someone’s keys away, the harder they’re going to dig their heels in to retain their driving privileges. Preserve the peace in your house and let the DMV be the bad guy!
