Courses Next Week For Drivers Over 70

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 16

Courses Next Week For Drivers Over 70

The Transport Department will hold further courses for over-70 drivers next week. The courses are intended to provide opportunities for older people to discuss the problems of modern driving and learn latest developments in the rapidly-changing traffic pattern. The senior traffic instructor (Mr M. Hally) said yesterday that the courses were not additional tests for the driver over 70.

“All these people are licensed drivers,” he said. “They are a very important group, as many of our pioneer drivers are among them. Tremendous changes have taken place since they began driving, and we want to ensure that they keep abreast of the most recent developments. Driving is a much more complex skill than it used to be."

Mr Hally said some of the drivers attending probably never had to pass a test. Some had held licences for more than 50 years, and no test had been required when their licences had first been issued. The department had approached local bodies and obtained a list of all those drivers aged 70 and over, where possible. All those traced had been invited, but all over-70 drivers were welcome to any of the sessions advertised. The City Council would run its own courses, and the Transport Department catered for those outside the metropolitan area. Last year one person in 35 of those seriously injured or killed in a motor accident was over 70. The courses will cover the basic causes of accidents, especially relating to over-70 drivers.

About 65 people attended a course in Rangiora last April. The next session will be held in the Riccarton Town Hall at 2 p.m. on June 7, and at the same place on June 11. Similar courses will .be held at the same time in the Waimairi County (Harewood Hall) on June 8 and 15; in the Lyttelton Borough (Council Chambers) on June 8, and in the Paparua County (Hei Hei Hall) on June 16.