Driver retesting call repeated

Press, 12 June 1978, Page 4

Driver retesting call repeated

Of 160 motorists who recently resat written driving tests without preparation, only one passed, according to an advocate o(_ the regular testing of drivers. Mr D. Keir, a former chair-1 man of the Dunedin Driving Schools’ Association, was commenting on an article in ‘The Press”. The article had quoted the national secretary of the Institute of Driving Schools (Mr S. G. Adams) as saying that drivers should be retested every five years in an attempt to reduce the road toll. Mr Adams said it was •idiculous that a New Zeaander who gained a driver's icence at the age of 15 could irive for another 55 years without being retested. By -etesting drivers regularly, heir basic knowledge of the . toad Code would improve, with basic driving skills, he said. His idea was vehemently opposed by the president of :he North Canterbury Drivng Schools Association (Mr 3. A. Ison), who said that ; he idea was a “load of rub-

bish,” and that most drivers knew the Road Code but icould not be bothered to! apply it. Mr Keir has replied that . Mr Ison was wrong when he suggested that most drivers knew the rules of the road. The Justice Department had been running for 18 months a course in Dunedin known as the "impaired drivers course." said Mr: Keir. Up to half the number of those convicted there of alcohol-related offences had been ordered to attend the course. About 160 of them had voluntarily undergone one of the Ministry of Transport’s standard 25-question tests for a driver’s licence. Only one of them had passed, and he had "scraped through.” Many of those sitting the test hail got only eight or nine questions correct. “If everybody was to be tested every five years, you would have to know what the story was,” said Mr Keir. He said that regular retesting was common overseas: and in California the period was four years.