Re: Driving is still a privilege, not a right (Letters, July 13)
Carolyn Herbert errs in talking of driving as a privilege in her letter.
The question is whether or not an individual puts others at undue risk by their actions. Thus, persons whose judgment is not considered sound enough for reasonable risk are prohibited from driving and other activities such as piloting, and some are locked away (notably violent criminals). Those approaches are by exception, which is the inverse of ‘privilege.’
Those who drive while intoxicated are in the news these days with the death of a motorcyclist near Goldstream Park by a driver who is alleged to have a history. Earlier a person with many serious traffic tickets killed a motorcyclist by short-cutting a turn when visibility was limited. Those drivers were not elders. I am more concerned about the many deliberately dangerous drivers I see on the streets than about a few persons who have had more birthdays – I don’t see many of the latter out there.
Good citizens will fight the pernicious notion that the collective doles out privilege, which sounds like the elitism of totalitarian societies like the former U.S.S.R., and take a rational approach to evaluating and mitigating risk.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich