Help! ASAP! At DMV now. Q about box on Medical Examiner's Cert

[ChanelCinq]

So I have been back to the doctors or the optometrist 3 times already. My dr said she could not do the eye portion and said I have to go to an optometrist which I realized after the optometrist visit that she was wrong.

Well I could gripe about all kinds of stuff but let me get to the point. The optometrist entered my vision in the right eye, the left eye, both eyes, and the corrected vision, etc. she did not check any of the boxes about monocular vision as it is quite obvious with the numbers for each eye that I am not blind in one eye.

After 4 hours at the DMV today they sent me to the doctor to get that filled out. Now they also gave me back the green card. Here is my question. I do not wear glasses or contacts though about 5 years ago I was prescribed glasses for astigmatism and my vision is 20/30. Maybe I should wear them but I don't notice a difference. Anyway on the green Medical Examiner's Cert there are 5 boxes at the top after my name is entered and DL number. Since I don' wear glasses should any of those be checked? Maybe the one that states "qualified by operation of 49 CFR 391.62?"

I don't want to have to return to the doctor a 5th time and the DMV a 4th time. This really is ridiculous.

So anyone know if those boxes can be left blank or which one should be checked?

 

[ChanelCinq]

The question right above is "I find this person qualified; and, if applicable, only when:"

And then there are a bunch of responses. But I am thinking because of the "if applicable" that it is not necessary to fill it out.

Anyone know? I want to end these trips to the DMV.

 

[epiaddict]

Your vision has to be 20/40 I believe in each eye regardless of what your vision is with both eyes. You didn't mention the individual results but that is a possibility. If your doctor sent you to an optometrist they may have not signed it since it isn't complete yet, but it sounds like you went back.

Assuming you did pass I think the box that says your qualified should in fact be checked.

The DMV didn't say what you need to fix? They should be able to tell you exactly why they didn't accept it.

 

[ChanelCinq]

Your vision has to be 20/40 I believe in each eye regardless of what your vision is with both eyes. You didn't mention the individual results but that is a possibility. If your doctor sent you to an optometrist they may have not signed it since it isn't complete yet, but it sounds like you went back.

Assuming you did pass I think the box that says your qualified should in fact be checked.

The DMV didn't say what you need to fix? They should be able to tell you exactly why they didn't accept it.

THey told me I had to have my doctor check the box that I don't have monocular vision. I was like are you serious, you can see the 20/30 vision in each eye and the 170 degree feild of view in each eye. So I sat in my car for 30 min, checked the box and went back.

No my question was about the green card because they handed that back to me and I didn't know if they wanted me to do something to it. I guess they didn't.

They really are a piece of work. If you go to the DMV site it states what you need for a first time application. That page is here:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/dl/ambu_drvr_cert.htm

No where does it state you have to have your EMT card to apply for the Ambulance cert. In fact it is in the Ambulance handbook that you only need your EMT cert when you renew your Ambulance cert.

The agent that was trying to make my life hell told me I could not get my Ambulance cert without having my EMT cert with me. I tried to show her on my iPad on dmv.ca.gov and I told her it was one of the test questions that I got right and she could see the answer on my test.

She insisted that she had to call Sacramento.

I was at the DMV for almost 6 hours yesterday and only 25 minutes of that was spent in the initial line. Be prepared for complete DMV incompetence.

But in the end I know do have my temp cert. Let's see if they ever send me the permant one. That also seems to be a rarity. Several of my instructors never received their permanent cert and it has been over 2 years.

 

[ChanelCinq]

FYI, after 6 hours at the DMV yesterday I got a call today and out of all the billions of signatures there is one that I missed. I feel it is their job to check these things. And on the form the woman marked about 8 places that I needed to sign or check a box. She did NOT mark this area and it was in the section that said something about "do in front of a DMV employee."

So now I am back AGAIN at the DMV. This is now my 4th time. Thirst time I was given a form about a tractor instead of the medical form. San Mateo, CA DMV sucks. If you live in San Mateo County go to Redwood City or Daly City. This place is a royal joke.

 

[ffemt8978]

FYI, after 6 hours at the DMV yesterday I got a call today and out of all the billions of signatures there is one that I missed. I feel it is their job to check these things. And on the form the woman marked about 8 places that I needed to sign or check a box. She did NOT mark this area and it was in the section that said something about "do in front of a DMV employee."

So now I am back AGAIN at the DMV. This is now my 4th time. Thirst time I was given a form about a tractor instead of the medical form. San Mateo, CA DMV sucks. If you live in San Mateo County go to Redwood City or Daly City. This place is a royal joke.

They did check it and discovered a missing signature...sounds like they were doing their job.

 

[Roy51]

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/dl/ambu_drvr_cert.htm

OMG California. Do you ever cease to find things to regulate (and tax). Reno is an awesome place to live... just sayin'.

In Texas we had to have Class B coming out of the fire academy because of the weight category only- not for emergency purposes. And it consisted of getting checked off in a fire engine then presenting a FD identification at the DMV, period. WV? Nope.

A state certification to drive an ambulance. Unbelievable. Why does life in CA have to be so complicated? It's a beautiful place but here we call EVOC and field training a wrap for driving the ambulance. As long as you have a flippin' DL to begin with...

 

[ChanelCinq]

They did check it and discovered a missing signature...sounds like they were doing their job.

It turns out it was a signature that said something like "only sign here in the presence of an agent" or something like that. So when I was there yesterday for 6 hours do you think one of the many agents I was dealing with would have had me sign it in front of them? Yeah I guess they wanted me to waste some of my day today at the DMV.

This was my 4th trip just for the Ambulance stuff.

Trip 1: Pick up forms and buy 5 USD Ambulance book that I did not use, total time at DMV = 3.5 hours

Trip 2: Was given the medical form that I could have downloaded online but not the green card that was supposed to be attached to it, time spent = 1 hour

Trip 3: Getting the Ambulance vert, taking the test, etc, time spent = 6 hours

Trip 4: signing one of the forms they forgot to have me sign yesterday, time at DMV = 45 min (I am not including extra time I spend picking up my driving record.

Total time at DMV for Ambulance cert = 11.25 hours and 4 trips

And thank goodness I knew all the rules or they would have made me wait a couple more weeks until I had the EMT cert in hand.

 

[ChanelCinq]

Also a heads up to anyone just starting EMT school or early i this process.

While I was back again at the DMV I decided to get my 10 year driving history. I had a ton of stuff from the 1990s that never fell off. I suggest anyone starting this process to get a print out ASAP. To get anything removed you have to call Sacramento and they put in a request to remove it but it takes 6 weeks before it is taken off.

The agent on the phone said NOTHING drops off automatically and if you want ANYTHING removed you have to call them. You probably don't even have to get a print out. Just call them. The number is 916-657-6525. Call them and tell them to remove anything that is older than 10 years.

Be prepared to hold for 5 minutes or so and then have the line go dead and when you call back get a "all numbers are busy" message. Then wait another minute and get in the queue and then after 5 minutes the line goes dead with a fast busy signal again. This happened to me from a LANDLINE phone over 6 times.

Just one more thing to add to my list of how darn incompetent the DMV is.

I lived in Puerto Rico and the DTOP is so super organized compared to the DMV in CA. It is truly amazing how incompetent the staff is.