AGE LIMITS FOR DRIVERS

Evening Post, Issue 11, 13 July 1936, Page 8

AGE LIMITS FOR DRIVERS

The question of qualification to drive a motor vehicle and the issue of licences to that effect are matters which sooner or later will have to be studied very carefully, but the Minister of Transport (Mr. Semple) is quite right in discounting the as-sumption—-from his- remarks in Auckland—that he was prepared to raise the minimum age limit for drivers from 16 to 18 years. The reasons he gives for not taking such a drastic step are sound. Whether a licence should be issued or not depends entirely on the qualifications of the applicant to drive to the safety of himself and other road user?. Each case should be dealt with on its individual merits, and while obviously there should be some age limit, corresponding to the period at which a sense of responsibility may be regarded as having been developed, in a country like New Zealand this would be put unduly high at eighteen. Age is really not at all the main factor in the issue of licences, which should be governed by the applicant's competency. As the Minister stated, even at the other end of the age scale, some people at the age of 65 or 70 are capable of driving a car; otherc are not. Some people will never be competent to drive and should never be granted a licence. The trouble at present seems to be that there is insufficient power to keep such persons off the road until their inability to manage a car results in an accident which may prove fatal to somebody. Mr. Semple is well aware of this fact and suggests that driving tests should.be made a little harder. This is the proper way to tackle the problem. If a little of the strictness that rules in aviation tests before a pilot gets his "ticket" were introduced into motoring, the roads would be vastly safer for everybody.