THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Saturday, July 6, 1946. DRIVERS’ EXAMINATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26197, 6 July 1946, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Saturday, July 6, 1946. DRIVERS’ EXAMINATIONS

As matters stood the City Council had no option but to rescind its previous decision to set up a medical panel for the examination of all drivers of motor vehicles who I require a medical certificate before their licences can be renewed. The city by-law No. 32 appeared to cover such a procedure, and it was stated that similar panels had been !in operation for some years ■in northern cities. A panel actually was appointed and, according to the statement of the chief traffic inspector recently, it had proved conclusively its effectiveness. * “ There have been several cases,” he said, “ where the extended examination has revealed some hitherto unsuspected complaint which has prevented the renewal of a driver’s licence.” The legal position is that the Government regulation takes precedence over the Council’s own by-law, passed in 1939, and the regulation prevails which allows a driver to produce a certificate from any medical practitioner. There can be no two opinions on the need of correct medical examinations. Cr Jolly stated that the committee had been supported in its opinion that a panel was necessary by the knowledge of the inadequacy of numbers of certificates which had been supplied by applicants and by the fact that such certificates had apparently been given without examinations. Such a state of affairs is clearly a serious one. The principle, behind the Council’s action must be approved and, although it has proved necessary to abandon its intention, the experiment has at least been useful. It is claimed that the need for more careful examinations has been demonstrated, but the objections which have been raised to the scheme showed that it was far from satisfactory. Under the Council’s panel system an applicant was required to go .before one member of a list of approved medical practitioners whose qualifications may or may not" have been equal to those of his own adviser. No matter what qualifications a specialist might have, unless his name was on the approved panel, his certificate of fitness was valueless for the purpose of obtaining a driver’s licence. If something in the nature of a panel is desirable, it should consist of a board of two or three medical men fully qualified in the special requirements of the work. There should also be provision for the right of appeal to an outside specialist.

Cr Jolly has suggested that the Council should now- endeavour to secure support from northern centres in an effort to have the regulations extended so that licensing authorities would be given greater power. The proposal may be broadly commended, and the Council’s recent experiment may have been of some use in securing material for guidance in the drafting of future regulations. It may be recalled that, some months ago, in giving his verdict in an inquest concerning the sudden death of a taxi-driver, the coroner remarked that he had no rider to-add to his verdict, but he wished to emphasise the risks to the general public, in view of the deaths of three taxidrivers from lieart trouble, of the present system of medical examinations.