Cut 'em off at the gas pump
By The Bakersfield Californian
Oil companies and their vendors need to stop selling gasoline to unlicensed drivers. Their "overserving" of gas to unlicensed drivers creates a real and immediate danger to the public.
To me, anyone without a driver's license does not know how to drive. Anyone with a suspended driver's license obviously hasn't learned to drive responsibly. You would think that the people in the business of selling gasoline would take a proactive approach to safety on the highways and not indiscriminately distribute their hazardous product. The only thing convenient about convenience stores is that drunken unlicensed drivers can fill up before they drive off and hurt or kill someone.
Just as alcohol is watched for overserving, gasoline should be, too. I know that many Kern County families wish there was something that could have been done to prevent the suffering caused by these drivers.
If we want to make driving an inalienable right, fine, put it in the Constitution. Until then, I'm beginning to feel like a Bakersfield old-timer, because Ms. Church, the driving instructor at South High, taught her students that driving is a privilege "reserved" for those who obey the law. It's not much of a privilege if anyone without a license is still enabled to drive.
Steven Matheron
Bakersfield
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