ISSUE OF DRIVING LICENCE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23662, 12 June 1942, Page 6

ISSUE OF DRIVING LICENCE

+ ■ FORMER MENTAL PATIENT IN ACCIDENT MR JUSTICE NORTHCROFT’S CRITICISM Surprise that a person who had twice in recent years suffered mental breakdown should be granted a licence to drive a motor-car was expressed by Mr Justice Nortncroft in the Supreme Court yesterday, when sentencing a prisoner on a charge that, being a motorist, he failed to stop after an accident and ascertain if any person was injured. “This suggests a degree of slackness in the issuing of licences, when a person with such a medical history should be allowed on the road with so dangerous an object as a fast motor-car,;’ his Honour said. He added that medical reports showed the prisoner had been in a mental home, had been discharged, and had then been taken back again. He appeared to be mentally unstable. “NO CHECK ON DRIVERS’ STATEMENTS” CHIEF TRAFFIC INSPECTOR’S EXPLANATION The opinion that the remarks of Mr Justice Northcroft raised a point that should be given close consideration by the Government was expressed by Mr J. Bruorton, chief traffic inspector to the Christchurch City Council, when tl e Judge’s remarks were referred to him yesterday by a reporter of “The Press.” Mr Bruorton emphasised that the local body traffic officials had no check on the medical history of an applicant for a motor driver’s licence beyond what the applicant himself disclosed. The form of application for/a licence was prescribed by the Motor Drivers’ Regulations, 1940. This form required the applicant to declare whether his sight, hearing, and heart are normal, whether he suffers from rheumatism so as to affect his driving Capabilities, whether he is subject to epilepsy, fits, dizziness, or fainting bouts, whether he has any disability in the limbs, and whether he is aware of. any physical or mental disability or infirmity likely to affect his efficiency as a driver. “It is, of course, an offence to make a wrong declaration, but there is no means, as the law stands, of checking any statement by a driver as to his physical or mental fitness,” said Mr Bruorton. “It would not solve the difficulty to require every applicant for a licence to produce a medical certificate unless such,a certificate had to be produced every year when application for renewal is being made. "Doctors and members of the public could help if they took a more serious view of their responsibility to notify the authorities when they have reason to believe that a person whose physical or mental condition makes him unfit to do so, is driving a motor-car.” Mr Bruorton said local body officers who issued licences had to accept the statements made by the applicant, unless they had reason to believe them to be incorrect. The licence was then isSued,.provided the driver successfully vJEBt through the tests. So far as the rafistglftirch „,Gity'; Council's requirements ft&tb-concerned, those tests were rigorous, he added.