Cellphone videos obtained by the I-Team show angry student drivers threatening, harassing and even attacking the examiners who oversee their road tests.
Leaders of the union representing thousands of DMV employees say the recordings show their members are facing serious risks to their safety when they grade new motorists behind the wheel.
“You give them the test. They're smiling and friendly until you tell them they fail. Then the monster comes out,” said Benjamin Greene, a Motor Vehicle License Examiner who leads the CSEA DMV Unit.
In the last two decades, Greene says he’s witnessed irate student drivers push examiners and even try to run them over with their test vehicles.
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"I had a colleague and she was kidnapped. They took the car against her will and took her eight blocks away," Greene said.
Recently text examiners successfully lobbied DMV brass to eliminate "instant notification," which allowed applicants to see their pass/fail result while still at the testing site.
Michael Ko, a Motor Vehicle License Examiner who works in Jamaica, says harassment episodes declined after that reform – but they hasn’t disappeared altogether.
"I do have to say that once the instant notification ended it wasn't as frequent, but recently — probably six months ago — I had somebody threaten me because they didn’t have the proper paperwork to go out on the test," Ko said.
Lisa Koumjian, an Assistant Commissioner for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, said the agency has been effective in its efforts to reduce the number of attacks and threats against road test examiners.
“The safety of our staff is paramount, and DMV takes matters of workplace violence very seriously,” Koumjian said. “Our employees take a mandatory workplace violence prevention training annually, and we work with the unions that represent our field staff to find solutions to better protect them.”
Though test examiners applaud the agency’s canceling of instant notification, they say there are additional reforms to make road tests safer. For one, they’d like the state legislature and local governments in New York to increase penalties for harassing or assaulting the men and women who administer driving tests.
“Make it a felony,” Greene said.
Public transit operators and bus drivers already have special protections under New York’s criminal code. DMV examiners say they deserve at least the same kind of treatment since they are often in very close quarters with student drivers who desperately want passing grades.
When failed drivers inevitably become upset and lash out, road test examiners also want the state to freeze their opportunity to they get another road test appointment. Currently, bad behavior at one road test has little impact on scheduling another test.
“These same people can come out here and threaten us,” Greene said, “and they could come back the next day or go to another road test site and do it again.”
