Why Other Drivers In California Seem Blind
Probably because they are. The California DMV issued a legally blind man a license -- even after he disclosed his blindness, and without giving him a driving test, as required.

Luckily, 72-year-old Mark Overland had voluntarily given up driving and was just testing the system.

Check out how the driving test went, from Steve Lopez in the LA Times:

Overland gave up driving 15 years ago because of his deteriorating vision. But he kept renewing his license by mail for the sake of having a valid ID. Five years ago, when he got a license renewal form, he noticed a portion that asked if he had any visual impairment that would affect his driving.

"I checked off 'yes.'"

The next line asked what that might be, and Overland wrote "retinitis pigmentosa." That's a progressive condition in which peripheral vision is lost. Overland has a narrow tunnel of vision, and can see pretty well within that field. But anything to the right or left, up or down, is lost to him. He was more than a little surprised then to get his license in the mail a couple of weeks later.

When Overland got his latest renewal notice a month ago, it instructed him to go to a DMV office for a written test and eye exam. He was curious to see what would happen if he didn't mention his disability, so he went to the DMV on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, with his daughter Courtney doing the driving. Overland thought briefly about entering the office with his white cane, but decided against it, and Courtney instead served as his guide.

Overland was called to the counter by a clerk and told to read the eye chart on the back wall.

"I'm looking around, and I can't find it because it's not in my line of vision," Overland said.

He located it quickly enough and was able to read most of the letters, but not all of them. The clerk then had him peer into a machine for another eye test. Overland began to read, but Courtney watched the clerk scrunch his face and ask her Dad:

"Sir, what are you reading?"

Overland was looking at something other than the eye chart, which he hadn't yet located. Redirecting his line of vision, he found the chart and did well enough to pass. He later aced the written test, left the building at his daughter's side, and his new license arrived in the mail two weeks later.

Love that you don't even have to bribe anyone to beat the system.

Love all the people who are reliant on the system to work and don't understand that this sort of thing probably happens as often as people are frustrated by bureaucracy -- and usually not to people who know better than to drive.