LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Tami Senger's daughter will be turning 18 in a few months. But the teenage rite of passage of getting the freedom that comes with a driver's license may need to wait a little longer.
"It's just very frustrating. You just don't know when it's going to open up," Senger said. "You don't know if it's going to be a month from now. You don't know if it's going to be six months from now."
Senger said she started looking to schedule a driver's test for her daughter, who wants to get her restricted driver's license, back in July, but she has not had any luck finding an opening.
"It's like a guessing game and every time you get out and try to look to see if there's availability, there's no openings at all," she said.
Senger's situation is not unique. According to Kentucky State Police Sgt. Josh Lawson, the coronavirus shutdown that started in March led to a big backlog of people looking to take their tests.
"When we did start opening back up and started conducting those tests whether it be permit or driving test, we were already looking at 3,000 that had been scheduled, canceled, and that we needed to get to," he says.
Lawson said priority has been given to those who had to cancel their tests because of the pandemic and KSP has been reaching out to them to reschedule. The testing hours and capacities have also been limited because of the pandemic, which are making appointments harder to find, especially for the road test, which is what Senger's daughter needs to take.
"Our driver's test administrators are in full personal protective equipment and it's one person, one car," Lawson said. "There's really not a lot we can do to change that."
Lawson said KSP is working on getting all the counties set up to schedule appointments online, which will hopefully make the process more efficient.
"What we've had is driver's test administrators answering the phone about scheduling a test and when they're answering the phone, they can't be giving tests," he says.
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