Mva

Holders of Maryland driver's licenses can now list on their driving records the names of people to be contacted in the case of an emergency, under a program launched Monday by the Motor Vehicle Administration. Using the voluntary Emergency Contact Information Registry, Marylanders can store information with their electronic driving records about who law enforcement officials should contact in the event of a traffic crash or similar emergency. Holders of state driving licenses or identification cards can list up to three persons to be notified.

The state has launched a program to streamline the eye exam process for people over 40 who are renewing their driver's licenses. Ophthalmologists and optometrists who sign up for the free program can submit a patient's vision screening results online to the Motor Vehicle Administration. Eligible drivers can then renew their driver's licenses through the agency's website or self-service kiosk. Drivers who use an MVA office can use the vision certification to eliminate the vision screening step in the renewal process.

The state has launched a program to streamline the eye exam process for people over 40 who are renewing their driver's licenses. Ophthalmologists and optometrists who sign up for the free program can submit a patient's vision screening results online to the Motor Vehicle Administration. Eligible drivers can then renew their driver's licenses through the agency's website or self-service kiosk. Drivers who use an MVA office can use the vision certification to eliminate the vision screening step in the renewal process.

As state officials unveiled a giant statue of a crash test dummy at its new home in Glen Burnie Tuesday, they deemed it "destined to be a regional landmark. " But towering at five times larger than life and weighing 2 tons, the bright-yellow tribute to safety drew fears it would become a regional source of rubbernecking. "We had a tremendous amount of thought about that," said John Kuo, administrator for the state Motor Vehicle Administration, whose headquarters became the dummy's final resting place.

The Motor Vehicle Administration's decision to halt theissuance of identification cards is the latest indication of widespread fraud and irregularities. During the next three months, officials will try to figure out a better system. Only then will photo ID cards again be issued as a means of identification for those not possessing a driver's license.Recent events have shown that MVA personnel, either due to corruption or carelessness, have been issuing numerous bogus driver's licenses. Whether they number in the hundreds or thousands may never be known.

Hoping to halt the issuing of fraudulent licenses, the state Motor Vehicle Administration is making it easier for drivers to report stolen or lost licenses.The agency announced yesterday that a license holder can call a special number (950-1682) to report a missing or stolen license. The information will be immediately entered into the computer system at both the MVA and law enforcement agencies, MVA officials said.With that information readily available, an MVA clerk would be more careful about issuing replacement licenses.

Last week's column was intended to be an explanation of bicyclists' rights and the new state law requiring drivers to leave a 3-foot buffer when passing them. Naturally some drivers objected. One sent an unsigned scrawl saying: "There is no way I will give a bicyclist a right of way. . . . This law stinks. Get the bicyclists off the roads. " Even more put out were some bicyclists. What offended them most was my quoting Motor Vehicle Administration spokesman Buel Young to the effect that bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities just as operators of other vehicles and that among them is to refrain from impeding traffic.

I believe your analysis of the situation you describe in this editorial, ("Motor voter efforts come up short," Feb. 24), is flawed and misguided for the following reasons: First, you state, "Ensuring that the eligible are registered to vote ought to be a top priority. " What responsibilities are the MVA's vs. the individual's to "ensuring" that this occurs? It appears that the Motor Vehicle Administration provides the opportunity and a reasonable means toward this objective. You apparently place a greater responsibility (and a more costly one)

Maryland's Motor Vehicle Administration of the Department of Transportation recently has increased fees.The most significant increasewill be the renewal of a driver's license, which is good for a four-year period.The cost will be $16.

A longtime Motor Vehicle Administration employee has been charged administratively with taking a bribe and suspended from his job, officials said yesterday.The action came Saturday after the employee was offered a bribe by an undercover police officer posing as a truck driver at the MVA's Glen Burnie office, said W. Marshall Rickert, MVA administrator.The worker, a hearing examiner whom officials declined to identify, allegedly accepted money to pass the undercover policeman on his written examination for a commercial driver's license.

Your article about problems Maryland drivers have had getting their licenses renewed indicated that most residents of the state already have government photo IDs ("Computer glitch shuts down MD driver's license renewal system," Sept. 26 ). This article notes that the MVA has issued driver's licenses to 4.5 million residents and MVA identification cards to another 500,000. That comes to a total of 5 million Maryland residents with government photo IDs. According to the latest population count, there are 5.8 million people living in the state, and more than 800,000 of them are under 18 and thus not eligible to vote.

Commerce Secretary John Bryson is blaming a seizure for the multiple car crashes he caused in California over the weekend. He was cited by police, according to Tribune and wire sources . Bryson, 68, allegedly hit a car stopped at a train track, got out and talked to the passengers and then hit their car again as he pulled away. He also hit another car before he was found passed out at the wheel later by police. It's unclear if he had more than one seizure or was disoriented after the first, said Dr. Gregory L. Krauss, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University who has not treated Bryson.

I flew out of a lunch meeting at Sascha's in Mount Vernon last week, ran down Centre Street in heels in the rain and rushed past co-workers in the lobby of the Sun. I hurried through the skywalk into the paper's garage, jumped in my car and turned the key to leave for an assignment in Randallstown. Then it hit like it has so many other times in the four months since I moved from South Carolina to Baltimore: I have no idea where I am going. I can drive hardly anywhere without pulling out my GPS from under the driver's seat and punching in the address.

Editor: Senate Bill 412 [requiring an election judge to establish a voter's identity by requiring the voter to present specified proof of identity] is dead on arrival. You have to remember that your bill can affect each and every voter in the State of Maryland. Where are the indigent suppose to get the 15 bucks to get a photo ID from the Motor Vehicle Administration? Where are they to get the money to purchase the proof that MVA requires? Utility bill? What utility bill? My wife's name isn't on ours.

Linda Barnes spends a good chunk of her life at the state Motor Vehicle Administration's office in Essex - far too much, in her view. "I wait 21/2 hours sometimes. There are days when it's been three hours," said the auto title agent from Perry Hall. Barnes' perception that the Essex MVA is particularly slow is validated by cold, hard statistics. According to data posted online under Gov. Martin O'Malley's StateStat program, that office is the slowest in the MVA system, with an average customer spending just over 40 minutes to wait in line and complete a transaction.

A document examiner at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration in Mondawmin Mall was sentenced to two years in federal prison Wednesday for illegally producing identification documents for foreign applicants, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Warren Hall, 48, of Pikesville, was also ordered to forfeit $40,000, prosecutors said. His alleged accomplice, Adalberto Benito Prins, who prosecutors claim acted as a translator and middle man, is a fugitive. "This type of criminal activity allows dangerous criminals to obscure their identities and cover their tracks," William Winter, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, said in a statement.

Sometimes the best thing a columnist can do is make way for the good sense of others. This is one of those times. In this case, that common sense is provided by an unlikely source — the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. Now the MVA does a lot of things wrong. Who of us has not griped about waiting in line at one of its offices? (To be fair, on my last visit, I was in and out with a replacement driver's license in 10 minutes.) But the MVA has a new version of its Maryland Drivers Manual out on the street, and the section on bicycles is clear and well-stated.

Although her four daughters and seven grandchildren didn't have a clue what she was up to, Phyllis Hare was busy on a recent Saturday morning in Westminster checking off another item on her "bucket list" - challenges she's determined to try during her lifetime. She was taking motorcycle lessons - in a class for women only - at Carroll Community College. In the parking lot of the Washington Road campus, with a fleet of motorcycles and bright orange cones laid out across the course, Hare, 63, said she was setting an example for her daughters and grandkids.