New Jersey Wants to Stop Dead People From Driving

Zombie apocalypse preppers in New Jersey can rest a little bit easier. A bill moving through the legislature there would prevent driver’s licenses and other DMV documents from being issued to dead people. A March 2015 audit of its Motor Vehicle Commission found that driving documents were released to more than 300 people who, according to the Social Security Administration, were dead, reports NJ.com. In response to the discovery, Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo sponsored a bill that would require the MVC to check SSA’s records on a monthly basis. The proposed legislation was released by the Transportation Committee yesterday and moves to the House, per an NJ.com update.

Unfortunately, SSA has its own issues with keeping track of who’s dead or alive. About 9,000 living people are declared deceased by the agency each year, according to a report by CBS News published in March. There are also millions of deceased persons—including about 6.5 million over the age of 111—that the office shows as still being alive. (The SSA's inspector general guesses there are actually only 10 people over 111 who are alive in the US.) And since Social Security numbers are used in just about every legal transaction, the problems at SSA pour into countless other government offices, banks, credit reporting agencies, and other life-affecting organizations. The SSA says it is working on it. "We ... work very hard to correct errors when we learn of them," a spokesperson told CBS. (More New Jersey stories.)