When should an Elderly Driver give up driving?

Would this be the vision of an elderly driver?  I am in New Jersey after my previous post on Veteran Taxi-Drivers and had read the May 2 edition of USA Today. It had the feature story of “Stopping older, dangerous drivers a growing problem” (you need to purchase the article to read it in its entirety).

The issue is serious enough to be the cover story on USA Today’s front page. The case featured was a 90-year old lady drove past a red light near her home in Dallas and crashed into another car driven by a 17-year old girl who was going to school to take a test. She died five days later and her family pushed the Texas Legislature to pass a bill to tackle bad elderly drivers.

As our population ages, there are more elderly drivers on our roads and the attention to ensure safety will be increasingly important. Aging affects our mechanical reflexes, visual acuity and ability to focus – all these capabilities are integral to safe driving. Although elderly drivers are slower but their misjudgement at intersections posed much risk to the other drivers who are going at higher speed.

Drivers above the age of 65 years old have to pass the medical examination every three years mandated by the Traffic Police to renew their driving license. Should more be required on the elder drivers? I strongly feel so especially using on-road assessment and also involving their family members who are able to monitor their health status during the three years between medical examinations. The ability to quickly respond to illness symptoms and near-misses is essential to assure road safety for all.

More Veteran Taxi-Drivers?

You should have read about the recent case of the taxi-driver running down the driver after a minor collision. I believe that most of us would be angry at the merciless taxi-driver and sympathetic towards the victim who is lying in coma. The motoring public did rally for the key eye-witness (lady passenger in the taxi) to come forward and she did finally surfaced to give her side of the story.

The taxi-driver is a 68 years old relief driver – he may a grandfather by this age and I cannot imagine that he would intentionally run over the young man. I hope that the circumstances of the incident be analyzed in details for a fair trial. I have the hunch that his health and visual capability may have strong bearing on the case. So I googled and found a related article at
OneMotoring’s FAQ on Taxi Drivers’ Age Limit.

Taxi Driver Vocational License can be renewed to qualified taxi-drivers age up to 73 years old from 2006 as long as they pass the medical examination. The medical examination is required on a biennial basis for those from 50 to 65 years old and on an annual basis for above 65 years old. For the group from 70 to 73 years old, there is an additional special test conducted by qualified occupational therapists with two components i.e. off-road tests and on-road driving assessment. The tests include reaction times, vision, cognitive abilities, physical control of vehicle, etc.

I wonder if HE at 68 years old could pass the special test … Should LTA consider lowering the age limit for the requirement of the special test?

UN Global Road Safety Week

April 23 – 29 is the United Nations Global Road Safety Week. I am pleasantly surprised to read the articles in the Sunday Times about how the Traffic Police tackles the road safety for motorcyclists. Motorcyclist fatalities contributed significantly to the total fatalities in 2006. The article describes how the Uncles and Aunties may pull the speeding and wreckless motorcyclists over and give them a lecture on Road Safety instead of issuing them a summon. The guilty motorcyclists should realize that the law enforcers are concerned about their well-being and do not want to have more dead bodies on the road.

I have personally observed that LTA and Traffic Police have changed their approach in improving Road Safety through one example of one accident black spot – barrier was set up along the road divider at Boon Lay Way some years back to block pedestrians going between Jurong East MRT/Bus Interchange and IMM Shopping Mall. The intention is to encourage more pedestrians to use a nearby overhead bridge. However, one has to go away from the direction of IMM to cross the bridge and thus, take a much longer walk. I then started seeing many pedestrians climbing over the barrier and some had even landed onto the edge of the road after they jumped over the barrier, resulting in some very scary moments for themselves and approaching motorists. Some months back, LTA finally installed a traffic light at that point and made an opening in the barrier – I applaude the new approach even though my drive may be interrupted by yet another traffic light along Boon Lay Way.

Pedestrians should be patient to wait for the “green man” signal to come on before they cross the road. The new problem that I notice at that black spot is that impatient pedestrians would just dash across when possible and ignorant followers are surprised by fast approaching vehicles. Thus, I would always slow down when approaching traffic signals even though it is green in my favour.

Drive safely, not just this week, but all the time in your motoring life!

Accident-prone Spots: ERP Gantries

Last July, I was already in town when I drove to Orchard passing the Dhoby Ghaut ERP gantry. I was less than ten metres from the gantry when I realized that it was in operations and I did not have my cashcard inserted in the IU. My immediate thought is to slow down and insert my cashcard but did not do so as I had read sometime ago that a fatal accident had occurred due to a sudden braking by a motorist at one ERP gantry. Although I checked my rear view mirror thereafter and found that there was no vehicle trailing my car, it was a right decision not to risk my fellow motorist and my life. So what is the penalty for non-payment of ERP charge?

Motorists who pass through an operational ERP gantry without a properly-inserted CashCard in the IU, or one with insufficient monetary value in the CashCard to pay the ERP charges, will receive a letter within a few days of the violation requesting them to pay the outstanding ERP charge plus an administrative fee of $10, within two weeks from the date of the letter. The administrative fee is reduced to $8 if payment is made electronically via OneMotoring website, AXS, SAM, vPost, ATM, Phone and Internet Banking.

I received the summon from LTA promptly within 5 days and was convinced that the technology works very well and it is a well-oiled process for LTA to penalize forgetful motorists.

I understand the rationale for using Cashcard in the IU since the metaphor is similar to paying cash on the spot of usage ie. we know that we pay for the ERP charge as the IU sounds a beep before showing the balance on the display. We can also use a Cashcard reader to check the past transactions on the card. However, there is no alternative for motorists who prefer electronic payment. A registered post-paid card with a deposited sum of security and approved automatic electronic payment can certainly put the minds of the forgetful motorists at ease. In the event of theft, the post-paid card can be cancelled as soon as possible to minimize loss but then again, it is worthless to the thief since the sensor identifies the IU that holds the card.  Investigation into transaction disputes is straight forward since the data exists for evidence.  However, the privacy issue would be major concern as you can easily piece together one’s vehicular movement with all that data.

If you have not know prior about the penalty, please be conscious that it is just a $8-10 fine versus trying to beat the odds of causing an accident and perhaps that change in decision may also prevent the loss of lives. The strange thing is that you cannot count the near misses but it is a life-changing event when a serious accident occurs …. think about that and reflect on your near-misses …. I hope you have improve your driving habit after those near-misses.

Buyer Bid versus Dealer Bid

This post is now at http://singaporemotoring.blogspot.com/2007/07/buyer-bid-versus-dealer-bid.html.

Need for Speed? Remember that You Only Live Once …

Last Saturday, I was sad to have read about two separate cycling accidents in the local newspaper.  A sixteen year-old boy was killed when his bicycle was hit along Yuan Ching Road and a ten year-old boy was knocked down by a taxi as he was cycling home after his tuition class.  At such young tender age, they may have made a mistake and lose their lives. 

 I have a friend whom forbids her daughters from crossing road by themselves until they are eighteen.  I thought that is an overkill on road safety but then again, it is better to be safe than to leave them to face road danger at a young age. 

 Who suffers in these accidents?  The victims will experience pain before death but the agony on those who remain is more painful emotionally for the rest of their lives.  Their parents, the drivers of the accident vehicles, friends and loved ones will have to bear with the loss.

No driver in his or her right mind would want to take a precious life.  However, with the fast pace of our lives and the tendency to arrive at your destination just in time, most motorists are rushing on our roads.  Some of the young ones even have the need for speed … to be the first off the green light.  Why hurry?  It may rush you to the grave.

I strongly encourage all motorists to plan their trips with sufficient time to get to their destination.  We should always strive to arrive earlier by at least five minutes since there may be unforeseen heavy traffic to slow us down.  It may take slightly more time per trip but be reminded that this practice may save you the REST OF YOUR LIFETIME.  Drive safely!

A Deep Dive into the Cash Rebate scheme

 

This post is now at http://singaporemotoring.blogspot.com/2007/07/deep-dive-into-cash-rebate-scheme.html.