AGED MEN AT WHEEL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20479, 4 December 1934, Page 5

AGED MEN AT WHEEL.

London Pensioners Work as Taxi Drivers. life And limb peril. Thousands of passengers entrust their lives each day to the care of drivers old enough to be their grandfathers, says a special correspondent of the “ Daily Mail.” There are scores of men aged 70 or more in charge of public service i vehicles by day and night in London’s | busy streets. I Many draw the old-age pension to augment their weekly wage. A few •vill never see 80 again. Electric tramway-cars, no mean vehicles to manage, are rushed down steep hills journey after journey by those who have reached an advanced age. While it is true that all drivers of j Public service vehicles must pass tests to obtain a special Scotland Yard I license to work in the Metropolitan area, can it be deemed reasonably safe for a taxicab to be driven by a man of 84? Thousands of young and active men who are being supported by the dole and public assistance committees would give a lot to fill the places that would thus become vacant. Even with the London Passenger , Transport Board there is no age limit. I Certain servants, of the board confii dently expect that an age-limit of 65 ■will come into operation one day. That may not happen before 1936. In the meantime age stays at the wheel. As long as they can get a doctor’s certificate taxicab drivers may continue !to wmrk indefinitely. Occasionally they I stay long enough in harness to die at • the wheel.