MINISTER of Transport and Logistics Frank Tayali says there is a proposal in the pipeline regarding at what age a driver should cease being a road user because of old age.
Speaking when he toured RTSA Ridgeway station, Thursday, Tayali said government remained committed to ensuring it put in place legal frameworks as a way of avoiding any potential hazards.
“I asked management and obviously my PS did chip in. I wanted to find out, obviously we have an age limit in terms of the youngest age that we can take on, so I wanted to find out if we have an upper limit as to when one can be forbidden, when it can be deemed that it will be risky for other road users for somebody to continue to drive. So the PS has indicated that there is a proposal to make some kind of enforcement where at a certain age, a licensed driver will need to frequently come in to be able to be assessed as to whether they should continue to be allowed to be a road user in terms of being a driver,” he said.
“So that is in the pipeline but of course that won’t be so much of a problem in our set up in this third world country of ours because most people when they are in their 70s, after retirement, they may actually not even have a motor vehicle. Those who do have a motor vehicle have retired comfortably well and they have a driver. So it is not so much of an acute problem per se but it has to be in our statutes so that we can forestall any potential problem. We want to make our society better so that we put legal frameworks to be able to take care of all these potential hazards.”
He reiterated government’s commitment to enhancing the agency’s core business.
“All in all, there are also plans to ensure that we also put up a shelter here at Ridgeway, something similar to what we have at Mimosa, those plans also extend to Silverrest and I think elsewhere as well. So this is a continuous process of improving the way RTSA goes about their mandate to be able to access motor vehicles, access drivers and many other aspects all of which are intended to execute their role of enforcement of road safety,” he said.
And Tayali said he had been informed by RTSA management that currently, the agency is only able to service half of the applicants who come through to their offices.
“On average, statistically, I’m learning that they are having to process somewhere in the range 100 driver’s licenses although those that come through are around 200,” said Tayali.
4 Responses
Problems on the roads are not caused by old people. Its the young ones who flout traffic regulations so dont waste time trying to solve problems which dont exist. Deal with real issues.
This is waste of time, when I retire if am still capable of driving the car that will be very unfair, if I may ask when introducing these laws, why can’t you find out from the citizens?
MINISTER of Transport and Logistics Frank Tayali says there is a proposal in the pipeline regarding at what age a driver should cease being a road user because of old age, and proposing 70 years as the limit, because after all those in this age group don’t have personal vehicles. Is he really serious? Accidents on roads are cause by youth who are juvenile. Let’s focus on important issues of national development and improving safety and security on our roads
Why is it that every time a new govt gets in office you, get the feeling that the country is regressing by the half’brained pronouncements some new ministers make. Produce the statistics showing that accidents are caused by motorists over seventy years.