California Disabled Parking Placards Sent To The Dead

July 20, 2011 6:06 AM

(credit: AP)

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Records show nearly 60,000 of California’s more than 2 million disabled parking placards issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles may have been sent to dead people.

The DMV checks state death records every two years and the Los Angeles Times says this year’s cross-check uncovered about 56,000 deceased placard holders.

The DMV misses many deceased people because of mismatched birth dates.

The DMV says fraudulent use of disabled parking placards, which allow motorists to park for free or in special designated spaces, is on the rise. More than a third of the placards displayed in vehicles are used illegally.

The DMV says it is studying ways to make the process more efficient.

California Disabled Parking Placards Sent To The Dead

Richard S. Hughey

Whats the big deal, the same 60,000 dead people will also vote the democratic ticket in the next election.
Richard S. Hughey

The same 60,000 are still collecting their entitlement check stupid!

Laszlo Mohacsi

The gov started this program and requires us to pay in so where do you get off calling it an entilement? and now after the Republicans have mis managed the fund it is an issue! It was a program set up to fail ! all people want is what they put in! I bet you collect a check too!

Landsnekt

Republicans mis managed the entitle programs? Wow you are drinking the cool-aide. The plan was conceived by democrats (FDR), the funds were moved in to the general fund by democrats (Truman), and payments were allowed to be given to those that never put a dine in the program by democrats (Carter).
Get your facts straight before you start tossing around blame.

Laszlo Mohacsi

Well first off the parking should be in the back of the lot where it is safer for the car or van to unload and not create a taffic back up! The want to be equal so there! most are on wheels when they get out of the Van. so where is the need to park closeand others who have a cane or walker should not be driving anyway! It is a waste of money for thesr spaces any way!

Cindy

Why should someone with a cane or walker not be driving? You have no idea why they have the cane or walker. Maybe they have bad knees. That won’t affect their driving. If you ever need a placrd you will see this in a whole new light.

Ed

So typical of any and all government agencies. The right hand never knows what the left hand is doing. It’s kinda like all the people who get auto insurance to get a drivers license and register their vehicle, and them immediately cancel their insurance. Does DMV do follow up and then cancel the vehicle registration? Answer: NO! They do nothing ,despite the law that requires you have auto insurance. No followup and checks and balances. It’s government at it’s best…

Cindy

Before you shoot your mouth off you might want to check with DMV. They do check out insurance cards. They can not catch everything anymore than the CHP can catch every car that is speeding. Some will slip through.

John B

Wow really? cuz EVERY single car in cali is processed through the dmv…so what you call a slip we call overpayed mistake prone employees…and yes they happen daily and cost taxpayers alot of money….and on top of that they have terrible attitudes and are SLOOOOW on everything
Sally

Cindy- 60 thousand the DMV is friction not doing their job LAZY LAZY just like the cops we have in SAC COUNTY and ELDORADO COUNTY No one gives a rats butt about anyone anymore

Suzette

I’m not surprised. My mother passed away last October, and I was stunned that there was no easy way to report her death on the DMV website to cancel her driver’s license and placard. So, I guess the renewals will get bounced by the post office… Every other agency had a mechanism for me to fax in a death certificate, and I was surprised that the DMV didn’t provide this.
Lisa Thode-Setzer

I think parking placards have become a joke…it is so easy to get one and there are so many that have them that should not have them…

jjvv

Yeah, a lot of people abuse them downtown. They use their mother’s. Just this past week, I saw a younger adult women park in the disable spot right in front of the gym, pull the placard up, jumped out and ran in (as she didn’t want someone to see her?). She took the same advance work out class that I did. I was like, disabled? really?

Codee1405

Good Morning Brown,

Question for you if a doctor deems you permanently disabled why do you send out disabled plaques every two years? It obviously shows that know one in the DMV is being held accountably for cost or checking up on 60,000 dead people.

Let’s do some math Brown:
2,000,000 plaques every two years cost the tax payers how much?
1) Plaques
2) Printing 8.5 x11 sheet of paper on DMV Paper
3) Envelope 6×9
4) Postage Presorted

What is the actual cost to the taxes payers every two years? Who got fired for allowing 60,000 plaques to be sent out to dead people? That is an estimated cost to the taxes payers somewhere around $180,000 to $300,000 mistake.

How about stop wasting taxes payers’ money and make these good for 5 or 10 years? If you find someone illegally using the plaques then you double or triple the fines. That is what we call revenue.

I know your pockets are lined with union money and that they need these printed every two years, but it looks really bad when you send out so many to dead people.

Definition of Permanently
1) Lasting or remaining without essential change:
2) Not expected to change in status, condition, or place

Quit kicking the can and start firing the union workers for costly errors. That money could have fed how many people?
Landsnekt

Aren’t the dead disabled by definition? I mean they have problems walking, not to mention breathing. And those few extra steps would be killer on atrophied legs. I think the DMV should issue disable plates to every dead person that has a valid drivers license.

Cindy

You are one sad person if you think this way. You are wasting your life!

Osama Hangaminichad

Cindy, this is satire. Get a grip.

Amy Cee Gee

Honestly I think I’d rather a placard go mistakenly to the deceased rather than some deadbeat criminal who is too lazy to walk an extra 100 feet…At least some of the deceased placards won’t be used. Honest people will either destroy them or turn them back to DMV.
Sally

Cindy get a real job
John S Smith

The DMV sent out about a million disabled placards a year. Every two years they check to see if the placard holders are alive. It looks as though the DMV is finding out that one of every 33 of the people who received a placard for being permanently disabled have died within the last two years. I would expect that people who have medical problems that qualify them for permanently disabled placards would have a high mortality rate. There is nothing in this story that actually shows that placards were being mailed out to people who were already dead, or even that the placards of dead people were actually still being misused, although it’s certain that with millions of placards, examples of such mistakes and misuse could be found. I don’t believe that one out of every 33 disabled placards was mailed out to someone who was already dead.
@Cindy

DMV checks out insurance cards? Yes, they do when you register your vehicle. However, after they have established you have insurance, in an effort to register your vehicle, you can immediately walk out of DMV and cancel it. The insurance companies don’t report to DMV that you cancelled it. Therefore their are many irresponsible people now driving without insurance. Get your facts straight!
Bob

Alot of these phoney placards are being used by state workers. It’s part of their entitlement mentality.
ignorance is unacceptable

Now I know where mine went! Registration came here, license came here….No placard. Had to wait three hours at DMV with NO disabled counter for a stupid card because they can’t get anything right.
The disabled counter has been nullified in all DMV offices in Cali. When you have an O-2 tank and can’t stand long, this is not safe. When I told the woman I needed to sit down, she just said oh you will be fine, this will only take a minute!
I asked her where she got her doctor’s license and told her she can’t treat people like that.
Patient Transport Patient Transport Services

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