Only tickets — not driving tests — can curb dangerous driving, reader says: Roadshow

Q: DMV behind-the-wheel tests should be used only for first-time driver’s tests. For the rest of us, they are a waste of everyone’s time.

The worst-performing drivers I see probably are the most skilled drivers when they want to be, or they would have wrecked their cars by now with all their speeding, tailgating, cutting people off, breaking the law, and changing lanes every few yards.

The DMV Driver’s Handbook lists the most common causes of collisions as driver distractions, unsafe speed, improper turns, not following the right-of-way rules, not following stop signals and signs, driving on the wrong side of the road, and traveling faster or slower than the flow of traffic. No experienced driver would do these things during a behind-the-wheel test, but some drivers do these things all the time on the road.

More enforcement is the only way we are going to stop bad drivers.

Pete Williams, Moraga

A: You raise a good point. The CHP recently hired more officers, and will be adding thousands more over the next decade.

Q: Your colleague Rick Hurd’s recent story about fatalities on Highway 4 pointed out that speeding and not wearing seat belts are considered the leading causes of death on this highway. None of the victims would have been speeding or failed to wear their seat belts during a DMV driving test.

He also wrote about a driver who was driving recklessly but was not ticketed because he was “assisting with a baby’s dirty diaper in the back seat of the car,” This tells those who are distracted that you can talk your way out of a ticket, if you have an excuse.

If you drive recklessly, you should be ticketed, unless you have a real emergency. Why not pull off the road to take care of a diaper, a phone call or other distraction?

Pete Williams, Moraga