Testing Of Drivers By Unlicensed Men Debated

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30093, 29 March 1963, Page 13

Testing Of Drivers By Unlicensed Men Debated

A motion that traffic officers should hold driving licences for all classes of vehicles whose drivers they tested was lost by 11 votes to 5 after a show of hands at a meeting on Wednesday evening of the Christchurch Metropolitan Road Safety Committee. Officers could not properly judge the quality of an applicant’s driving, nor be able to take control of the vehicle in an emergency unless they were licensed to drive it, said Mr B. H. Paton, when supporting a motion by Mr A, W. Savage, of the Christchurch Transport Board.' Mr Savage moved the motion as a recommendation to the New Zealand Road Safety Council for consideration in conjunction with proposed new standard tests for drivers’ licences. Traffic officers were quite capable of telling whether a driver was handling his vehicle competently, and this was all that was required, said the traffic superintendent of the Christchurch City Council (Mr J. F. Thomas). There was little‘difference between the man who held an ordinary car licence and the man who held a taxi licence, and the first was well able to judge the other. Yet the motion would require all officers to hold taxi licences, Which among other things would mean the expense of an annual • medical check as required of all taxi-drivers, Mr Thomas said.

The man who towed a trawler was comparable with the driver of an articulated vehicle, and truck and busdriving were parallel, he said. Different licences were required, however, and the expense of holding licences in all 10 classes would be considerable. It would be difficult to get men qualified to this extent. “Taking such a suggestion to its logical conclusion, officers would also be expected to have experience in log-hauling and of working road construction vehicles,” Mr Thomas said.