The Thailand Development Research Institute supports the initiative on fresh driving tests on the people who hold lifetime driver’s licenses, especially the motorists who are 70 years old and over, for the sake of public safety.
Sumet Ongkittikul, TDRI’s research director on transportation and logistics policies, said the idea of the Land Transport Department to recall lifetime driver’s licenses had been a topic of discussion among academics for a long time because it concerned road safety.
The issuance of lifetime driver’s licenses stopped worldwide. It was also a policy of the countries that had issued lifetime driver’s licenses including Japan that was an aging society, he said.
When Japanese drivers are old, they are encouraged to return their driver’s licenses for public safety. Elderly people were losing their driving skills and also had chronic diseases that might obstruct driving and caused accidents, Mr Sumet said.
He suggested the new policy be first applied to people aged 70 years old and over and be evaluated before being expanded to those who are 65 years old and over. He said that the drivers who were younger than 60 years old should be spared to save costs. (TNA)
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