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Fit for purpose?
Page 3
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Perhaps we're guilty of being cynical. Only the recent headline story announcing that under new driver licence reforms, every 10 years motorists will have to declare themselves physically fit to drive strikes us as yet another example of a Labour Government pre-testing policy by public reaction... Cr to descend into awful marketing speak: "Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it."
Apparently not many have. For when Commercial Motor asked the DVLA to comment on the recent Daily Telegraph story, its spokesman assured us: "There are no recommendations per se. We are going into consultation and will Look at alt aspects." What we can't understand is why the DVLA should be so coy about it. Actually, it all sounds eminently sensible to us. Why shouldn't every road user prove their fitness to drive every 10 years and not just in terms of physical health. Most, if not all of us, develop plenty of bad habits behind the wheel as the years tick by whether it's over-confidence, indecision, timidity or a downright lack of common sense. Despite being dismissed by the DVLA, the story, which to CM seems to have more than a ring of truth about it, suggests that 10year checks would help weed out those elderly drivers said to be three times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road than those aged 40-65.
Frankly, it the statistics are anything to go by, youth has little to recommend it, either especially when it comes to accidents. For that matter, the 40-65-year-old pool is also as likely to harbour the greatest number of drivers with ingrained faults as any other group. And dare we suggest some HGV drivers could do with regular 'fit-for-purpose' checks too? In
00fact, when it comes to tackling the root
cause behind the collisions, injuries and deaths that happen every day on our roads, we need to look at every option... and everyone.