Can Blind Men Drive?

I was driving to work this morning from the city, and as a red light turned green, I noticed the back of this truck's message which read: Caution: A Blind Man is Driving This Vehicle.
It wasn't until he started driving that I noticed the message, so I snapped as close as I could.

At first I thought, could this be a joke, but it wasn't in jokey type fonts or in bumper sticker form like:
"What if the Hokey Pokey IS What It's all About"
or
"I brake for scholars, priests, and no apparent reason"

I started riding up on him to get a glimpse, but he kept speeding up. Maybe everyone deos this to him, so he spends all day eluding people who want to see a blind driver. Although, if he' s blind, how does he know I'm looking at him? Whatever.

I didn't even know you could get a license and be blind. This doesn't seem too safe, so I decided to do some investigating. It seems that there are 34 states that allow the legally blind to drive under "specified conditions." Not sure what this means? Maybe when no one else is on the road, or when the apocalypse comes? Regardless, they're out there now, and today must have been a special condition.

I discovered that while legally blind drivers have an accident rate close to double that of the average driver, they are involved in proportionately fewer accidents than fully-sighted drivers who are impaired by alcohol or drugs. Well Amen then, by all means, we should let eye blindness accidents prevail over the blindness of alcohol and drugs. This truly makes me feel better.

So, this guy John Boel (in a Target 32 investigation--whatever that is) on WLKY NewsChannel 32 started tailing blind driver's on the road and during their driver's tests.

He witnessed this guy blow through a railroad gate that was down and flashing with the warning bell ringing. A cop actually pulled him over, didn't know he was blind, and the guy told him, he 'glanced at his dash' and 'when he looked back up, he didn't have time to stop.' Ya think? The thing that trips me up here is the bell. How did he not hear the bell? Was he deaf too? No. He heard the officer right? Or did the officer sign in his hand like Annie and Helen Keller?
Was he feeling invincible with his already blind license, decided to throw all caution to the wind, and f-ck listening too? Take the poll to the right to help me decide what the answer is.

Boel also witnessed a few people taking driver's tests. Here's how that went...

Boel says, "One bioptic driver almost runs into the back of a TARC bus on his test, and the examiner has to apply his brake."

Then, "This woman fails on the first stop when it takes her three minutes to parallel park, and 4 1/2 minutes to get out from between the barricades. Two weeks later she's back, and she's having trouble staying in her lane. Weaving badly, we count her straying outside her lane lines 13 different times, sometimes straddling the lane line to her left, but mostly crossing the white line on the right, nearly hitting the curb here, and nearly hitting a pole here. Later in this test, at a stop sign, she starts pulling out in front of a passing car, but hits the brake just in time."

When asked how confident she felt on the roads and the highway, she replies, "When I got on the Watterson Expressway, I weaved a little."

Boel asks, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident do you feel about your driving abilities?"

She replies, "A 9.5."

Guess what? Driver's license rewarded!

I believe my brother forgot to signal when parallel parking, took too long to merge, and failed his test at 17.

Although, after three years of kicking and screaming, my parents made me get a license, and I should not have been on the roads. I remember almost killing my Dad on our way after getting it. I was so scared and anxious. It took me about two years to stop white knuckling every trip to the super market. They didn't have any problems giving me a license either. Maybe I should be added to that stat above:
While young, dumb, and sqeemish drivers have an accident rate close to triple that of the average driver, blind drivers, and drunk drivers, they are involved in proportionately fewer accidents than those under the influence of a white magic, hypnotism, or bondage spell.