Standard Driving Tests ‘Not Answer’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30856, 15 September 1965, Page 8

Standard Driving Tests ‘Not Answer’

(New Zealand Press Association)

NAPIER, September 14. “The method of standardisation of driving tests may be all very well up to a point, but I am sure it is not, and never will be, the answer to our ever-growing road deaths,” said Traffic Officer H. L. Walker in a report to a meeting of the Hawke’s Bay County Council.

Mr Walker said last month just more than one-third of the number of applicants to the council for motor drivers’ licences failed to pass the written test. Two had failed four times.

“In most of the eight it was noticeable that they were not equipped with a very high standard of academic ability and although they were capable of reading the questions, they did not seem to be able to interpret them correctly,” he said. “The position as I see it is rather ridiculous, as I feel some of these people could become far safer and more competent drivers (if they could pass the written test)

than many applicants who have a high standard of academic ability and complete and pass the written test in a matter of minutes,” said Mr Walker.

A person may be capable of sitting all kinds of written examinations and also gain diplomas for all types of trades, but tills does not necessarily make him a good tradesman when it comes to applying his knowledge in a practical manner, he said.