As of Friday, 44,000 people in New York State find themselves with their driver’s licenses suspended for failing to upload the results of the vision test required to renew it. The terms, procedures and due date for renewal had been postponed a few times due to the pandemic by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Now, not only are they without a valid license, but they could also could be risking fines between $200 and $500 and up to 30 days in jail if they drive with a suspended one.
To avoid these penalties the D.M.V.’s has published a list on their website of vision providers authorized to conduct the test. The department mentioned that it will take approximately five days to complete the processing of a test once filed.
About 17,700 drivers are from New York City, says the New York Times: the majority. The rest: 5,216 from Brooklyn; 4,900 from Queens; 3,800 from Manhattan; 2,700 from the Bronx and 1,100 from Staten Island.
It all began back in 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. Since everything was shut down, even the eye tests required for the driver’s license were postponed. The Department of Motor Vehicles in New York decided that the licenses expiring between March 2020 and August 2021 could be renewed without taking the required eye test that would normally have been administered in the DMV locations by their staff.
Instead, drivers were required to fill a self-certification where they declared they met the vision requirement. However, it was stipulated that for this accommodation to be valid, they would have to submit proof of a vision test within a year.
The D.M.V. eventually postponed the deadline to last November 26, the self-certification program had ended and a few reminders had been sent out over the past few years. First, they forwarded emails and made phone calls to around 560,000 people by February 2021. By April 2023, more than 150,000 still needed to upload the results of the vision test.
Then the D.M.V. posted an alert on their website and again sent a last-call email where they warned the drivers with the final deadline: December 1. But still, thousands of drivers ignored the reminders.
