Do You Know Someone Who Should Not be Driving?

BC LogoI often hear comments that a friend or family member should not be driving. This person is usually either an older driver or a person suffering from health issues known to the person making the comment. These people also express the wish that someone would do something about it.

Image showing the result of bad driving

Driving Fitness

According to RoadSafetyBC, the provincial agency responsible for driver fitness, we are currently living about 10 years longer than our ability to drive safely. That said, approximately 180,000 medical examinations were required in 2019. Of that number, only about 66,000 were seniors so safe driving ability can be affected at any age.

Family and Friends

Difficult as it may be, close friends and family members are often the best ones to do something about an unsafe driver. RoadSafetyBC will take reports from anyone with direct knowledge of the problem and who is willing to identify themselves so that the report can be properly verified. A letter or fax is the appropriate report and the address or fax number is available on RoadSafetyBC’s web site.

Doctor's Responsibility

Without reports such as this it can be difficult to identify drivers who for whatever reason are no longer capable. Yes, the law does require that a doctor identify a patient that is no longer capable, but only if the doctor cautions the patient to stop driving and the patient does not do so.

Driving Medical Exams

Mandatory medical driver exams don’t occur until age 80 unless a problem has been identified. The criteria for these exams are set out in the CCMTA's Medical Standards with BC Specific Guidelines.

Whistleblowers

Worried about what will happen if you make a report? I’m sure that it would be a difficult decision for anyone to turn in a friend or family member. I suppose it comes down to asking yourself if you can live with that, or can you live with knowing that the incapable driver has hurt themselves or others because you didn’t do something.

This decision may not be one that you can rely on “the system” to make for you.

Evidence to the Contrary

On the other hand, one of my neighbours who was in her 80s met the situation head on. Her daughter had started to pressure her to stop driving so she made an appointment with a driving school and had the instructor assess her skills. The instructor was able to assure them both that it was safe for her to continue driving.

If you are on a budget, I see that the class 5 and 6 road tests are shown to be free to those aged 65 or older on ICBC's web site. You may be able to book a road test to assess your skills with them.

Graduated De-Licensing

One day we may see a Graduated Delicensing Program for those drivers whose abilities are no longer up to standard. Currently there are restrictions that may be placed on a driver's licence that limit privileges. Examples of this may include speed limits, daylight hours only

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114000 non seniors??

Roadsafetybc is overstepping its authority.

They have been treating people unfairly and acting un-ethically. They have a blatant disregard for the laws of this land and need to held accountable for their actions.

They currently work with no over-sight and no regulating authority over them. They are ruining the lives of innocent hard-working people. And that needs to change.

The actions of the people in this office are in desperate need of scrutiny and correction. At the very least. These people are not acting as the law says they should be.

maybe I'm old fashioned, but if they should expect that they should enforce the law and the people should operate within the boundries of the law, then I don't think it is too much ask that the people should expect them to also act within the boundries of the law, and when they don't, there should be a way for the people to have that expectation enforced.

In reply to by Riverratt

You've made a lot of allegations here without backing them up with any facts. That's bad.

In researching information for what I write here on the site, I can see the following ways for a driver to come to RoadSafetyBC's attention:

  1. A medical professional has made a report about them
  2. Someone identifiable with knowledge of the driver has reported about them
  3. A crash history has evolved over time
  4. A ticket history has evolved over time
  5. Prior verified information has indicated the need for follow up at a later date

There are also ways to dispute decisions made by RoadSafetyBC:

  1. An application for review by a RoadSafetyBC adjudicator
  2. Review by the Supreme Court of BC

Back to you....

Like I said, they are over-stepping their authority.

I have plenty of fact to back that. Way to much to present in a forum such as this, but a request for review from a different adjudicator is met with laughter and with scorn and flatly turned down with an immediate ban of contacting Roadsafetybc anymore and the application for a judicial review is a process for which no legal assistance is available with the process of applying being so much more complicated and difficult to understand than the common driving joe, no matter how determined or competent they may be, can complete or understand. With any attempts to do so being met with resistance and outside party's interfering or just plain blocking the way.

to make a long story short.

In reply to by DriveSmartBC

No. Because I'm living the nightmare it is proven. I told you I have plenty of facts to backup and prove what I say, but if you think I'll just spill them out here, in a forum such as this, just for your sake, your crazy. Even if it was a feasible thing to do.

All cynism aside, if you think you have the power or the clout to make this office behave in a way befitting of this country, and not something more representative of a place where power and corruption take priority over human rights and truth, then by all means, supply me with a way to speak and share documents privately and I will do every necessary to to work with you to fix this broken agency. Otherwise, don't insinuate publicly that I would lying about the state this agency is in just because it doesn't fit into your utopian idea of the world around you please.

The hell this agency is putting people like me through is bad enough without people like you encouraging it. Thanks

The damage and harm and suffering these people are inflicting on good honest hardworking people doesn't affect just them, the suffering trickles down into their families and filters out throughout the comminity dragging down everyone it touches accordingly. If this agency is to no longer act as an impartial administrator of law for the general public as it once had and instead act as an adversarial regulator of the general public's freedoms and activities, them it should also be subject to monitoring and regulating itself so as to ensure that it does not abuse the absolute power that it has been given. Such as it is in my particular case. And many more just like it.

The hell this agency is putting people like me through is bad enough without people like you encouraging it. Thanks

Whoa, let's back up here. Nothing in this article or it's comments is something from me encouraging or justifying RoadSafetyBC to do anything.

What is apparent (finally) is that you have had a negative personal experience. What it is we still don't know, nor the reasons for it, pro or con. I can certainly understand why you would not want to relate personal matters, but you can still speak in general terms to help others understand the issues.

Complaining without justification does not help.

In reply to by Riverratt

114000 non seniors?

Well, yeah. After all, seniors are only a relatively small concern, when it comes to requiring a medical review.

But what about those of us who hold a higher class of license? You know, the truck drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers and - these days - Uber drivers who require a Class 1, 2, 3 or 4 license in order to operate heavy and/or public vehicles? Every one of us had to undergo a medical evaluation in order to get the license, and have been doing this every two or three years since we turned 40! Incidentally, most of the rules of governance for licensing professional drivers are determined by the National Safety Code, across Canada and the US. Not by ICBC or RSBC.

Never mind those new drivers (of any age) who may have been born with, or have developed, physical and/or mental difficulties affecting their ability to drive safely. You know, the 16 year old with a history of epilepctic seizures? Or the lumberjack who loses a limb or two in an industrial accident, but still figures he can drive a sports car with a manual shift? Or the woman who was so traumatized when a bank robber leapt into her car, shoving her across the seat so he could take control, and eventually forcing her out of the right side door while the vehice is still moving? Do you think she was mentally equipped to drive safely, after that? (Yes, this happened.)

Roadsafetybc is overstepping its authority.

That actually brings up the whole issue of who, or what, RSBC is.

So explain your hyperbole:

They have been treating people unfairly and acting un-ethically. They have a blatant disregard for the laws of this land and need to held accountable for their actions.

They currently work with no over-sight and no regulating authority over them. They are ruining the lives of innocent hard-working people. And that needs to change.

The actions of the people in this office are in desperate need of scrutiny and correction. At the very least. These people are not acting as the law says they should be.

RSBC ain't perfect, and they're very difficult to communicate with. Even for people at ICBC. Plus which, they've completely dropped the ball on red light cameras and accompanying speed camera use - they really shouldn't be involved with policing driver's behaviour, it's not their purview - that's a job for the police, (whenever and however they decide to enforce it).

So far as accountability is concerned, well that's up to the government in power. And even if you're too old to drive, you can still vote, eh?

Let's put some perspective on the numbers mentioned here shall we? 
Currently bc has a population of 5.1 million people as of 2020.

The article states that Roadsafetybc claims to have dealt with 180000 medical fitness cases. 66000 of whom were seniors. Leaving a total of  114000 non seniors. Meaning that 114000 people of 'productive' working and child rearing family raising people have found themselves at risk of, and quite likely have had, in my experience, their licences remove by Roadsafetybc without the benefit of being road tested first without any process of getting it back in their lifetime. An action which can have a devastating affect upon them and everyone around them, and in the case of professional drivers, an action which could mean the difference between a lifetime of homelessness and poverty for them and their families or a lifetime of comfortable thriving.

compare those numbers to the current ones of the COVID pandenmic which, to date, has seen a total of only 61447 people infected with only 1078 deaths in this province and the numbers become extremely alarming.

Recap- 180000 people deemed medically unfit to drive in bc. 66000 being seniors. 114000 being non senior workingage citizens.

61447 total COVID cases with 1078 deaths. Less cases than the total number of oadsafetybc seniors alone.

5.1 million people residing in bc.

Given those stark facts, I find it hard to believe in the legitimacy in the need that Roadsafetybc is claiming. That's all I'm trying to say.

I left it off the list thinking that the road test really only happens after RoadSafetyBC decides that they need to become interested.

Exactly. The people at Roadsafetybc are ill equipped to judge medical fitness for driving to begin with. The fact that they refuse to take a persons driving record into account right from the beginning is the first hint at that. The fact that they refuse to offer give or even accept over the road skills assessments says it all.

the only way a persons ability to drive safely can properly be determined is by assessing the way they drive. Anything else is just arbitrary discrimination, and removing their licence without using that is without just cause

Roadsafetybc does not think that a persons past and present driving record or the results of a road test are necessary in determining a persons fitness to drive and therefore they refuse to take any such data into consideration.

removing a persons licence to drive without considering such criteria would be acting without just cause if that person has no records or signs of dangerous driving and is akin to gross discrimination and Canadian charter rights violations, along with a slew of human rights violations. If doing so results in causing significant irreparable harm to a person, such as in the case of those who use their licences as a career, in this country, it becomes a crime that would see the aggressor facing time in jail. But Roadsafetybc is doing such a thing on an ever increasing basis without having any checks or balances in place to monitor or regulate their activity and nobody seems to give a chit. They just turn a blind eye and say 'thank god that's not me'.

what's it going to have to take before this office, an office that used to demand and get so much reverence and respect from the professional driving community, before it changed its ways without warning or notifying anybody, before it's, if not illegal, immoral and unethical, ways get scrutinized and changed? How many people are going to have to lose their lives needlessly to the wrongful actions of this power drunk office of road safety ignorance is turned around and placed in the right direction once again? What needs to happen before these people see the error of their ways? Innocent people are losing their lives for no reason to this offices flawed and ineffective operating procedures and decisions.

what's it going to have to take? 

There's a useful item on this here website, regarding the Enhanced Road Assessment. Though not all drivers qualify for this.

The people at Roadsafetybc are ill equipped to judge medical fitness for driving to begin with. The fact that they refuse to take a persons driving record into account right from the beginning is the first hint at that.

The fact is, how a person has conducted themselves behind the wheel previously is irrelevant. The question the Examiner has to address is how that driver conducts themself behind the wheel these days.

It's just like Airline Pilots. They don't get any credit for the thousands of hours successfully accomplished in the cockpit; Transport Canada will still insist that they undergo a re-examination every six months in a simulator. (Typically, if they're not successful, they choose to quit there and then, rather than do a re-test later. They're professionals, you see.)

The only way a persons ability to drive safely can properly be determined is by assessing the way they drive. Anything else is just arbitrary discrimination, and removing their licence without using that is without just cause.

Bullshit. That's just your opinion, based on self-justification.

If your license has been revoked without even you being able to undergo a re-test of some kind - be it an ICBC Class 5 road test, or the ERA - whilst your physical condition has not deteriorated, then it would appear that it's for mental health reasons. Please correct me if I'm making a false assumption. People reading this thread and all of your hyperbole thus far can draw their own conclusions.

 

You are making a false assumption.

True. To an outsider looking in, I'm sure my behaviour does appear and seem to be say, erratic or less than rational at times, and I'll be the first to admit it. And perhaps in that way, my mental health could be said to be deteriorating, but I can assure you, it is not due to any condition for which I have had my licence cancelled. It is more a result of my experiences in the course of attempting to get this rectified and the ever increasing stress load I'm under as I continue to try to keep my property secure, my responsibilities taken care of, food in my belly, and a roof over my head etc under conditions that grow more and more difficult everyday due to my loss of ability to bring in an income. Unfortunately, and I'm very aware of it, the constant anger and frustration in under is resulting in angry inappropriate irrational outbursts from me on a more frequent basis. It's not a normal character trait for me and it is a direct result of what I'm being put through with this. It's very counter-productive.

im not sure what it is that you would like to hear from me... scratch that. See, the cubism of this situation I've been placed in is creeping in once again.  ...what it is that you would like to know without me going beyond my own personal privacy boundries on such a public forum, but essential what has occurred is, a nurse practitioner whom I had been seeing over the course of treatment at the bccancer agency for breast cancer, in what I am assuming is an act of malice, only because I have an overwhelming amount of coincidental facts that seem to lead one to that conclusion, in lieu of any other rational explanation, grossly breached my confidence in her by reporting personal information I had divulged to her for the purpose of ensuring my best informed care for cance from my related caregivers. And for no other reason.

The information was a year old when she decided to use it against me and, in that year, was never a topic of discussion or problem. Incidentally though, her sudden need to make a report of it to Roadsafetybc, after not expressing any concerns to me for an entire year about it, just happened to coincide with the release of a report into an investigation by the college of physicians and surgeons into a complaint I made about the quality of care I'd received from a couple of her close colllegues that sided in my favour, along with a stay of proceeding requested by crown in the strangest of criminal trials myself and my defender lawyer had ever seen where I found myself on trial facing criminal charges for a crime that never happened, I never did, and no evidence existed. It was really weird. Anyhow... at the time it really was a mystery for why it was happening at all. It came out in a secondary report later from the college that it occurred as a result of a call made by one of the surgeons I'd reported to the college, in hindsight, I did get arrested shortly after I'd filed that first report to the college.

and the snowball has continued to roll over me a multitude of times, each time heavier than the last, since then. Metaphorical speaking.

I hope that answers your question. I know it's not an answer, but the truth is, I have no answer to give you. But I'd like to have one.

Thank you Tim for extending me this opportunity btw.

As I understood it:

A complaint was sent to RoadSafetyBC against you by a nurse who was taking care of you recently in retaliation to your complaint to the college of physicians for bad care against two of her colleagues.

That sounds like an abuse of process, but before that can be alleged, answer this:

  • Did the complaining nurse see your driving? Any chance the nurse could have seen it, like in a parking lot or followed you after leaving the hospital?
  • Removing yourself from the particular context, would the information that was given by you to the nurse indicate that an average reasonable person should not be driving in such circumstances?
  • Do you believe that your current physical condition would affect your ability to drive when compared to an average driver?
  • Are your hands and feet and neck debilitated in any way that you aren't able to perform all shoulder checks and react in-time in-case of emergency?
  • Is your eye-sight impaired in any way beyond available means of correction that would make you fail a driver's eye exam?

If you answer NO to all of the above, then write a letter stating that the complaint was not in good faith and is abusing the process, paraphrase the above questions into statements and demand that your license be reinstated. Give them 30 days to comply, and if they don't, petition the Civil Resolution Tribunal to sue for your license back.

I guess I'm just a dumb truck driver.

I cant get any of these court forms filled out in a way that allows them to be accepted. And I cant afford the lawyers fees who could help me.

It's hopeless.

You cant trust the doctors in this province and more so, you can't trust the superintendant of Motor Vehicles anymore.

Thank you for trying to help though. Once they screw you in this province, your screwed. They'll do everything short of kill you to take your life away from you and theres nothing you can do about it. The best way to deal with somebody whom you think shouldnt be driving is to deal with them privately and directly because Roadsafetybc will only cause anyone that crosses their path the maximum amount of destruction of that persons life as is possible with no hope of recovery. The operate above the law and they will happily flaunt it you while giggling. Find a better way to deal with your concerns as to a loved ones driving. Unless you hate the person, then by all means, sic Roadsafetybc after them. Theyll beat your enemy right into the ground for you more than you could ever dream was possible.

This agency used to be a drivers best friend, now, they are the most formidable enemy a driver could ever meet. Consider yourselves warned.

This agency used to be a drivers best friend, now, they are the most formidable enemy a driver could ever meet. Consider yourselves warned.

What a load of nonsense. Whilst there is definitely room for improvement - particularly in regard to their communications skills - with RSBC (formerly OSMV) they weren't ever anybody's friend. Or enemy.

The Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles was created at the time when ICBC were given responsibility for the Motor Vehicle Branch. Previously, it had fallen under the purview of other authorities, including (if my memory serves me) the Office of the Attorney General, and earlier than that I think it was under Indian and Northern Affairs, or something similar. But when it came under the purview of ICBC - a crown corporation, headed by a CEO - the government of the time realized that the creation of a separate entity was necessary.

For several decades now, medical issues have been the purview of the OSMV/RSBC. These might be of a physical, or mental, nature - as I mentioned earlier in this thread.

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Regarding Outrageous' earlier remarks, I would like to offer a little additional info from my experience in the driver training industry:

  • Are your hands and feet and neck debilitated in any way that you aren't able to perform all shoulder checks and react in-time in-case of emergency?

I have spent a lot of time working with drivers (sometimes in conjunction with Occupational Therapists) whose physical abilities have become an issue. Re-training those who have lost a limb, for instance, thus needing to learn how to use various devices such as a steering knob, or left-foot gas pedal, or even full hand-controls for the brake and accelerator.

As for shoulder checks, these aren't even required for higher class licencees, so as long as the driver can ascertain what's beside them (or not) by some means, then they certainly aren't a requirement to pass a test.

But for an individual who requires certain devices - whether they be special controls, or convex mirrors, pedal blocks, seat elevation, whatever - the system in place accommodates these things; though they may place a specific Restriction 51 on their Driver License.

Worthy of note, there's a fellow that I got to know a bit some years back - and have the greatest admiration for - by the name of Lars Taylor. It's worth checking out his bio, just to see what people are capable of. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that he's still para-gliding these days ... in his wheelchair.

  • Is your eye-sight impaired in any way beyond available means of correction that would make you fail a driver's eye exam?

If a licencee is in disagreement with the result of an ICBC eye exam, it doesn't mean they're without options. It means that they can demand an EVF form (Evaluation of Visual Function) and take it to an independent opthalmic expert. You know, an eye doctor. The result of the EVF will over-ride the determination of the ICBC visual testing machine.

Incidentally, ICBC/RSBC must comply with government regulation, as was discovered in the decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Terry Grismer. One result of this was that onlly twenty years back, one couldn't even qualify for a professional license knowledge test if it was discovered that the applicant was monocular, or colour-blind. This is an interesting human rights case, but with an entirely positive result for drivers and other road users alike.

I can understand how you feel, a faceless bureaucracy is shutting you out. But consider the inverse - situations when somebody should not be driving due to danger to public that they present. This process aims to protect the public and the 114000 non seniors reviewed in 2019 represent only a 0.5% of the total licensed drivers in the province (~2.3M). It doesn't appear like a massive proportion; so the process that is aimed to protect the public, at-least on the surface appears to be running reasonably.

It is hard to advise anything else in your particular case. Sometimes it maybe helpful to look at personal situations as if it had happened to somebody else and to be fair in giving benefit of the doubt to all parties. I don't hold you out to be a dumb trucker, at the very least you can communicate eloquently and understandably, perhaps too voluminously.

You might have luck asking ICBC driver's licensing / information desk by phone simple questions like:
- What is the status of my driver's license? Why is it the way it is?
- What needs to happen to obtain a valid driver's license? Is it possible for me to get a driver's license? When?
- If medical assessment is the thing that's stalling the process, maybe ICBC can advise on what and where.

Driver's license is certainly a privilege, but having met all of the statutory requirements an agency like ICBC cannot deny issuing a license to eligible applicant. So speak to them how to become eligible. And if something isn't clear, or the person is talking too fast, just repeat the call and speak to a different rep until you get the answers that you can understand and follow upon.

Keep your eyes on the prize - a valid license; be polite and diplomatic but curt and focused on your goal.

Ya thanks.

funny. 114000 seems to .5% of the population so it's ok with you that Roadsafetybc has destroyed their life's in the name of public safety but 66000 people catch a cold in which  a thousand or so die from complications of and its and unacceptable loss that requires shutting the whole province down for a year or more.

I had a good life before Roadsafetybc stepped in to save the public from me. I'm physically fit, and I have no disease. And for the most part, considering what I've been forced to endure and been through, in charge of my faculties. I have an excellent clean driving record which I am highly proud of and throughout my lifetime have managed to save more lives of hapless unskilled motorists who tried to use me as their weapon of choice to attempt to kill themselves, or their passengers, or me, or my passengers through the skills and vigilance and disciplined technique I practice every second that I am behind the wheel. And this is how I am to expect my legacy to end is it?

I hope something good comes out of what this morally and ethically corrupt agency has done to me, but somehow I doubt it. Their are just too many people begging and pleading to have their rights and freedoms taken away these days for anybody to even care about the wrongs that have been done to me. This agency knows exactly what it's doing and they've got the stack decked so well in theyre favour that it's impossible to stop them.

so unless you hate somebody with the vehemence reserved for your worst enemy, don't call Roadsafetybc expecting to think your going to make anyone's life any better. Even the devils pees himself at the sound of its name.

Thank you for your advice. It is some of the most useful I have received and I will follow it immediately in the exact manner you suggest. The answer is no to everyone of those questions.

Very helpful. Thank you. In addition to the nature of my problem, the Roadsafetybc adjudicator has made a demand for an assessment which, initially, sounds simple in its scope, but, in practice, has proven to be impossible to attain. I have talked to literally hundreds it seems, of experts amd specialists in the particular field, some of them many times over, in this province now and not one of them can or knows how to do an assessment of the nature being demanded. Roadsafetybc has repeatedly refused to send me to a place of their choice or tell me who to approach for it. Any requests to elaborate on the information they are requesting, by anyone, not just me, is met with the hard line of 'the information required in the adjudicators letter is clear' and a person is directed to refer to the last adjudicators letter and that is it. No other questions are answered. But if the information was that clear, then people would not be confused and asking for more clarity.

This has been going on since Oct 2019 with three different letters from the same adjudicator with each consequetive one changing slightly in its demands with the last one being received in Feb 2020 followed up a few days later by a letter that looks more like a template than a official letter stating my licence had been canceled demanding I send my licence to the address given on the letter where the only address that can be found on it is my own. I began to think that the whole process was a fraud. An elaborate sick joke. But a quick check of my abstract shows that my licence most definitely reads 'canceled'.

Over my career I have had the pleasure of dealing with the Office of the Superintendant of Motor Vehicles on numerous occasions. Every time the information they were requiring was very specific and clear and any inquiries were met immediately in a professional and direct manner. I have in the past received letter from adjudicators on the Superintendants behalf and their decisions were clearly laid out with the reasons for which clearly given and the points of law and regulations under which they were made given and explained.

But I have never seen anything like this were everything is done in secret and I have been denied participation and information. Roadsafetybc still to this day has refused to tell me what 'nurse' it is that issued a report to them about me. And, in fact, at the very beginnining, attempted to insinuate, along with the nurse I expected it was, that it was  a different nurse working in a whole other division, when I inquired of them who it was. It was only after the vancouver patient quality care review folks assertained it was the nurse I suspected that I knew for sure. And I only ever got to find out what the contents of her report was after a second inquiry through the freedom of information act was made by a lawyer who temporarily agreed to help me in July 2020. Roadsafetybc still refuses to tell me the content or the nurses name.

Roadsafetybc has officially told me that I am no longer allowed to talk to them directly, and will not return my calls when I leave my number for call back. My emails get returned undeliverable, in fact, any emails I send to any address ending in gov.bc.ca get returned back undeliverable. My calls to any phone number on the governments server go to dead air with me only being able to connect with any particular government number if I go thru the service canada switchboard and request that they connect me to the particular office I am looking to speak to. This has made communications extremely difficult for me.

I hope this clarifies your confusion as to my situation and gives an understanding of my vehemence towards Roadsafetybc adequately. It is only through the good grace of a very understanding landlord that I still have a roof over my head right now.

all I want is my licence back and to left alone by these folks. I don't care what their motivations or reasons are and I don't even care to know. I just want to be able to go on living my life uninhibited by this bullcrap. I've done nothing wrong. I am quite fit to drive and I in fact, have a rather huge respect for Roadsafety and a very disciplined approach towards it in my driving skills and abilities. I find any allegations towards me otherwise to be extremely offensive and insulting. I've been hurt by this whole thing very deeply.

I had a good life before they stepped in and destroyed it for no reason and gave me no way to get it back.

This is the thanks a person gets for dedicating their entire life to risking it everyday so that the ingrates and cretins of this society can feed their faces, clothe their bodies, and put a roof over their ignorant heads convienantly.

I hope something good comes out of what they've done to me, but somehow I doubt it. This society seems too dead set on going down this path of  oppression and enslavement no matter how many people get in its way. Roadsafetybc is so morally and ethically bereft that the devil himself pees himself a bit at the sound of its name.

If you think that taking honest working class law abiding citizens and forcing them to live like criminals and off government assistance by taking away their ability to earn a living, take part in recreational activities enjoyed by the rest of society, or even just travel to other parts of the city or country, and causing them to lose everything they've worked their whole life to gain, for no identifiable or justifiable reason, and giving them no hope of ever getting it back, is in the interests of public safety or public good, your out of your mind.

Destroying a good persons life simply because you have the power to do it is not only morally reprehensible, it's illegal. And wrong. And shouldn't be allowed to continue to happen in this country. Little alone be condoned and applauded such as it has been.

You know what?

I don't give a damn anymore. My life is in ruins. My impeccable reputation has been destroyed. My future is gone. My savings used up. And my relationship with my family has been strained to the point of no contact.

I have been blocked from any contact with any and all government agencies and representatives, related or not to this particular issue, with my emails being returned undeliverable and my phone calls just going to dead air. I am perilessly close to losing everything I've ever worked hard for to attain and I will soon lose the roof over my head. My savings, once enough to enable me to go travelling overseas are gone, and I have no way of being able to secure or keep what I have left save.

and all of this is not because of any kind of failure or wrong doing on my end, except for to say that I trusted in the medical system of this province. An act, which, had I not done, and something went wrong, I would've been on the hook and held liable for rather than the ones who had been treating me. I feel tricked and deceived and used by the medical community. I am damned that I did and I was damned if I didn't. Then along comes the Superintendant of motor vehicles, an office I had complete trust and confidence in to use common sense and fairness in their dealings with me instead go and break all the rules, throw, throw policy and ethics away, and drive the final nail into my coffin by taking away the only tool that I had and know how to use to make myself a living and gather the resources I need to continue fighting this injustice occurring to me and setting out impossible to achieve demands if I am ever going to have a hope of ever getting it back. The licence that is, most of the rest, my reputation, my savings, my planned future, much of my hard earned property, my relationship with my family, at the age of 50, are now gone forever. And they did it to me with our a blemish or sign of dangerous driving on record fro me.

They quite blatantly, literally laughing in my face, point blank told me that a driving record has nothing to do with whether or not a person can drive safely. If you ask me, that makes a mockery out of every aspect of our current system of driving, from drivers licence issuing all the way up to the hiring of the most elite and highly skilled and trained drivers of my trade. If the most important measure, and truly only reliable measure of ones driving skills has nothing to do with gauging ones ability to drive safely, what is? Your ability to beg and plead and kiss the right ass and hand over the right amount of money? It certainly seems to be.

so now, here I am, stuck in this situation, left to die a slow and painful suffering end for no reason, in this country where it's considered to be a heinous crime worthy of the greatest of penal action, for a private citizen to place another private citizen in, unable to find a single god damned person in this god forsaken province to help me get out of, even after I have clearly done everything I could possibly do, and exhausted every last possible resource available to me to use. Instead all I've found is dead ends and doors I would never of expected, slammed and locked securely in my face. Then, just so I get  the message, a boot stomped and left flat on my face.

ask me if I give a chit anymore. Go ahead, ask me. This is how this society treats the people who have fed them and clothed them and kept them save in the face of their own stupidity, recklessness, and ignorance all their life. This is the way our society says thanks is it? If anyone thinks that I'm going to stick around long enough to give these ingrates the satisfaction of sneering at me lying in the street while they drive by splashing puddles in my face, they're going to be disappointed. I'll make sure I don't stick around for them to have that kind of satisfaction.

I'm reading with great interest the defence of RoadSafetyBC that DriveSmartBC is attempting to mount on this page.
 
I ran afoul of RoadSafety a year ago. I had an Implantable Cardiac Defib implanted one and a half years ago. My cardiologist was quite clear that I was completely safe to drive - not only my car, but my motorcycle as well. 6 months later I received a letter from RoadSafety stating that they had received an "unsolicited report" that I may be unsafe to drive. No idea who would have done that. They required a letter from my doctor stating that I was safe to drive. I obtained that letter, with my cardiologist stating that I was completely safe to drive. My mistake was assuming that the letter would be forwarded to RoadSafety. It wasn't. One month later, I received a letter from RoadSafety stating that I had missed the deadline for them receiving the letter and that my license was immediately suspended pending their medical review.
 
They have JUST reinstated my license. It has taken over 5 MONTHS for them to rubber-stamp my doctor's letter. They don't answer their phone. They won't meet with you. They won't tell you what progress is being made or where you are in their stack of paper. And they added a new demand. Part of the medical report submitted by my doctor mentioned that I have type 2 diabetes. And now they want a letter from my doctor stating that I am safe to drive with type 2 diabetes.
 
A little note on type 2 diabetes - an estimated 250,000 drivers in BC have type 2 diabetes. Are they evaluating a quarter million BC drivers for this condition? (By the way, from what I've read, the medical community considers type 2 diabetes almost a non-issue for driving). So, are they assessing everyone, or just those unlucky enough to have fallen into their system. I feel very special.
 
Something else I found when talking to doctors, nurses and even some ICBC employees - they despise RoadSafetyBC. To a person, they state that they NEVER pass information to RoadSafety because of the way they operate. One nurse described them as conducting "witch hunts". EVERYONE I talked to expressed sympathy with having to deal with them.
 
So what's going on here? An arrogant government department that answers to no one but themselves, a department that clearly doesn't care that a suspended driver's license can be ruinous to an individual, and, most tellingly, a department that is held in contempt by health care workers and, indeed, a lot of ICBC employees as well.
 
And I can guess your reply...  I just have an axe to grind. I have exaggerated the comments from others. A lot of this is made up. Nope, all true and accurate. So go ahead and defend this deplorable department, but as someone who is stuck in their system, I read your defense of RoadSafety and I have to smile. You have no idea.

I'm reading with great interest the defence of RoadSafetyBC that DriveSmartBC is attempting to mount on this page.

I reread it and what I see is a quest for details to back up assertions made by one person in response to an article that simply explains what RoadSafetyBC did in a particular situation.

In your case, I cannot comment specifically either. You do not say what the cardiac condiction that required the pacemaker is. I can only provide a link to the CCMTA's criteria for cardiovascular disease and disorders for you to go through and perhaps comment on afterward.

I have no intention of defending RoadSafetyBC. I try my best to explain and leave the comments for people like you to share their experiences as they wish to. If I didn't want your viewpoint, I wouldn't allow comments on my site at all.