City begins to clear disabled drivers’ requests

For 11 months, Case McKinley — a Pupukea 16-year-old with cerebral palsy — was refused his learner’s permit because his application to drive could not be reviewed by a state-mandated board of doctors that lacks enough members for a quorum.

But the city stepped in to approve McKinley’s application to the Honolulu Division of Motor Vehicle, Licensing and Permits on Wednesday. And the state Department of Transportation has assembled a group to begin clearing the backlog of more than 100 other applications from disabled and elderly drivers around the state who had been stuck at the state DOT’s Medical Advisory Board.

On Wednesday, McKinley finally got his learner’s permit and drove away from the Kapolei DMV in his mother’s 2012 Volkswagen Jetta, with his father, Jason, riding shotgun.

"I was a little bit nervous," Case McKinley said later. "Parking was the hardest part. But I’m really excited."

In February, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser featured McKinley in a story that reported the DOT’s volunteer Medical Advisory Board had not had a quorum since July, which prevented McKinley and more than 100 other disabled and elderly drivers — mostly on Oahu — from getting permission to drive.

But McKinley’s application was among the first handful that city DMV officials began clearing on their own after they reviewed doctor’s notes from drivers such as McKinley, said Sheri Kajiwara, director of Hono­lulu’s Department of Customer Services, which oversees the DMV.

And the DOT in the last two weeks has assembled a "working group" of non-doctors to approve about 40 "obvious cases" with plans to clear an additional 30 or so in the next few weeks, said DOT spokesman Tim Sakahara.

"The state still believes that safety is a priority, but we do understand that the backlog is affecting people and their ability to drive," Sakahara said.

The cases approved by the working group had been reviewed previously by the Medical Advisory Board and showed "no new medical conditions and had clean driving records," Sakahara said. "The working group is approving the obvious cases."

The members consist of two representatives from the state Office of Civil Rights who are disability experts; two representatives from the state Motor Vehicle Safety Office who deal with driving laws, regulations and rules; and the driver examiner from Honolulu’s DMV, Sakahara said.

Another 30 or so more complex cases likely will have to be reviewed when the Medical Advisory Board finally gets a quorum, Sakahara said.

According to the state, the unpaid Medical Advisory Board must consist of five volunteer doctors: "One psychiatrist, one neurologist, one orthopedic surgeon, one ophthalmologist or optometrist and one specialist in cardiovascular disease."

Gov. David Ige has submitted the names of five doctors to the state Senate for confirmation to the Medical Advisory Board. One is a neurologist, another is an ophthalmologist and a third is a psychiatrist. Two do not meet the specialty requirements.

"Doctors are very busy people, in particular, specialists," Sakahara said. "More doctors out there are certainly welcomed to apply."

DOT officials, at the same time, are considering other options to make serving on the Medical Advisory Board more attractive, Sakahara said.

"The state is going over all of the possibilities," he said.

On Wednesday, McKinley only had to give up a fingerprint and sign his name because he had already passed his written test.

Afterward, he had plenty of suggestions to prevent other drivers from getting stuck in Medical Advisory Board limbo.

First, the teen said, the DMV needs to follow its own policies that allow city officials to approve applications like his —without the need to refer them to the understaffed state Medical Advisory Board.

"Their own law gives them leniency," McKinley said.

And he urged state lawmakers to consider paying specialists to serve on the Medical Advisory Board.

"Those doctors are providing an extraordinary service," McKinley said. "You can see what happens when no one steps up to volunteer. The system breaks down. But there is something to be said for volunteering just for the sake of volunteering."