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New Zealand: Elderly angry over driver
retesting Nzoom.com,
July 14, 2003
Drivers
aged over 80 must resit their practical test every two years. But
the Tauranga branch of Grey Power says the tests are not essential and
believe elderly drivers are being singled out. 80
year old Alex McMichael is one of Tauranga's older motorists. He says when
he went for his first retest recently he was told he would automatically
fail if he broke the law in any way. "I
felt that as an elderly person who has been driving in war and peace for
65 years, that it was something I was being discriminated on because I was
old. "I
had turned a little bit older and I get a bit upset when I think about it
in those terms." And
Grey Power says the tests are nerve wracking because the driver's
independence is in the hands of the tester. Grey
Power's Noel Warner, "They are concerned if they are somehwere away
from a shopping area and their doctors and so forth. It's not easy for
these older people to get round to these places." But
Noel Ruff of Driver Testing NZ says the driving habits of the over 80's
mean they have to be tested. Grey
Power says nationally on average, 71% of those 80 and over fail their two
yearly test. But they say that maybe that is because of bad attacks of the
nerves. 935 pass on their second go. Grey
Power's researcher has the numbers and says OECD figures show there is no
need for mandatory testing. "The
statistics show that there are actually few older driver accidents and
that over time, accidents have not changed despite this punative
policy." Grey Power is
now so angry over the way it is been treated in Tauranga, it has taken a
complaint to the Human Rights Commission which has now asked Crown Law for
an opinion. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
