Accident-Prone Drivers’ Licenses Can Be Cancelled

Northern Advocate, 29 April 1940, Page 6

Accident-Prone Drivers’ Licenses Can Be Cancelled

r Per Press Association. Copyright.] WELLINGTON, This Day. Regulations affecting motorists’ driving licenses are published in .a supplementary gazette today. They contain several important provisions, and embody in regulation form, various enactments during the past session of Parliament. One of the new regulations states that overseas tourists may have their overseas licenses endorsed without fee by the local authorities at the main ports, such licenses to be effective for the remainder of the licensing year. Overseas drivers, however, will have to undergo an examination in the Dominion traffic regulations. Annual Test If Over 70. People over 70 years of age in future will be required to undergo an annual driving test, and also find it necessary to have medical certificates of fitness to drive motor vehicles. Perhaps the most important of the new provisions is that affecting the accident-prone driver. Under the regulations, the Commissioner for Transport will be empowered to review the licenses cf persons who may be deemed to be ■ dangerous drivers and cancel those licenses if he sees fiit. Appeal from the commissioner’s ruling to a stipendiary magistrate is also provided for, the cost of security for such an appeal being £l. 24 Minimum Age For Taxi Drivers. In future, persons under 24 years of age will not be permitted to drive taxis unless they are already engaged in this occupation, or are over 21 and are approved by the Minister for Transport, on the recommendation of the local body concerned. Another portion of the regulations stipulate that persons under 18 years will not be permitted to drive trucks over two tons laden weight, unless they are already doing so. This applies at present to unladen trucks of that weight. Deafness No Bar. All drivers of public vehicles, in the future, will require annual medical certificates, including the drivers of passenger trucks. The latter have not previously been covered in this respect. Except in the case of public passenger vehicles, deafness or imperfect hearing will not prevent a person from obtaining driving licenses, provided a medical man is prepared to give a certificate for general fitness for such a driver.