COMMENT
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t does seem strange that you can be granted a licence for up to 50 years to drive a vehicle which can kill—regardless of your standard of driving,' says Labour MEP Mark Watts, neatly setting out the argument for regular retesting of all driving licence holders. But is he right? We've all been stuck behind some old codger and wondered: "How on earth does he STILL manage to have a licence." And we've also all been carved up by some young teararse and thought: "How on earth did he manage to GET a licence." And as for your driving... well it's perfect, isn't it? But every once in a while, you think: "I could have killed myself doing that." The vast majority of drivers probably do improve with experience, but they also get complacent. Retesting has the potential, admittedly unproven, to weed out the sloppy, the non-attentive, and the downright lethal. You might dismiss retesting as the kind of daft idea that comes out of the European Parliament. But it's not so silly. Road traffic volumes are now such that we're under increasing pressure to make progress at whatever cost. HGV drivers might feel they already drive to a higher standard, but if you believe there are no bad truck drivers you probably think there are little green men on Mars. The Road Haulage Association says the proposal "could cause serious practical problems". More serious than congestion caused by traffic accidents every day? More serious than the £947,370 average cost of a single fatal accident? More serious than the 3,500 UK road deaths every year? Driving isn't a right, it's a privilege. And it needs to be earnt. If retesting makes every licence holder finally appreciate that fact then it has, to quote a certain famous landscape gardener, "great capabilities..."