Stuck in neutral Driver’s ed students face long wait for road test
May 18, 20008
Eagle Tribune
SALEM — A long line of teenagers and their parents stretched from the door of the Division of Motor Vehicles on a recent morning.
They were all waiting for their driving test, the final exam driver’s education graduates need before getting a license. Many were back for their third day trying to get a spot.
Matt Foden, 17, of Pinkerton Academy had come for the third time. So had Nicole Lyons, 16, also a student at Pinkerton.
Alex Marchioni, 16, of Salem was making her second attempt to get one of only 13 test slots available each day at the Salem DMV. Like most testing centers, Salem only has one test administrator available.
Marchioni and her father, Alan, had arrived at about 8:15 a.m. the previous Thursday, and were told immediately that they’d shown up too late.
The Division of Motor Vehicles only has 16 test administrators, according to spokeswoman Katie Daley, which isn’t nearly enough to keep up with the demand. And while the agency is working to create an online appointment system, it isn’t up and running yet, she said.
“The director has been asking for more examiners, as well as more licensing clerks, for many, many years,” Daley said.
Parents and teens tell horror stories about showing up before 7 a.m., waiting for hours and being told to come back another day. Sometimes, this happens several days in a row.
Those at the front of the line at the Salem DMV at 8 on a recent morning said they’d been waiting since 6:45 a.m.
“Once you take the (written) test, you should be able to make an appointment,” said Susan Parilla of Londonderry, who brought her son Robert to get his driving test.
Parilla worries about her son and other students missing classes.
While the first-time drivers who were lined up said they’d be returning to school, all agreed they’d be missing first period.
At Pinkerton Academy, there are severe penalties for missing five first-period classes without a doctor’s note, said Lyons.
She said she had been lucky because the first two days she tried to take her driving test, April 30 and May 2, were during school vacation. But the third time she went back, she missed her first-period class.
Ivan Melton, a driver’s education instructor with Calvary Christian School in Derry, said a combination of changing rules and fewer test administrators has made for a difficult situation.
“There’s been some changes going on at the DMV,” he said. “There are less examiners right at the moment, plus the fact that they’re extending the amount of time that they take a student out to drive.”
Saul Shriber, the driver’s education teacher at Timberlane Regional School District, is less sympathetic to teens and parents, though.
When he taught in the 1980s, he said, students were allowed to make appointments to take their tests, but wouldn’t show up at the appointed time.
In the 1990s, driver education teachers were allowed to give the tests themselves, he said.
“I never really liked giving the test because it was kind of a subjective thing,” Shriber said. “The road test is very subjective, to be honest with you.”
That changed about 10 years ago, he said, when the state began giving the tests again.
Among students and parents, though, there was plenty of criticism for a system that doesn’t have enough administrators and doesn’t allow students to make appointments.
“It’s stupid,” said Lyons, the Pinkerton teen.
With only 13 testing slots per day for schools in Salem, Londonderry, Derry, Windham and other surrounding towns, “the math just doesn’t add up,” said Parilla, the Londonderry mother.
And while young students by far make up the largest proportion of test takers, there’s another demographic affected by the long waits for a driving test: the elderly.
“You have to take a driving test (if you’re) over 75,” explained Reina Dubois, who was waiting with her 77-year-old husband, Albert.
He was trying to get a testing slot and had shown up around 6:45 that morning. He was second in line.
But he wasn’t too worried about the test policy. If he got a slot, which looked likely, he wouldn’t have to return for another test.
Where to take the driver’s test locally
Salem DMV — 33 Geremonty Drive in the lower level of Town Hall
Manchester DMV — 377 S. Willow St., Manchester Commons
Concord DMV — 23 Hazen Drive
Epping DMV — 315 State Route 125
Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, although appointments are first come, first served. Road test applicants must show up before 3:30 p.m., although they are encouraged to arrive much earlier.