SAFE SENSE by Mohd Najeeb Rosli: Roadworthiness check on motorists needed
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- Last Updated on Sunday, 11 September 2016 19:20
RESEARCH has found that if “matured” drivers today retake the driving test, almost half would fail the basic safety test.
Early this month, theSun reported that the insurance industry has refused to provide coverage for commercial vehicle drivers aged 65 and above as this group is deemed as presenting “high risk” on the roads.
To be fair, such elderly drivers still need to drive for a living and they must be given a chance, because age is just a number in reflection to driving capabilities BUT subject to certain competency and evaluation tests from safety perspective.
According to Finland’s road safety expert Kiskenen Hattaka, driving a commercial vehicle requires higher level of driving competency that includes good behaviour, the ability of driving planning to the right skills to manoeuvre and control the vehicle according to traffic and road conditions. Together with paying strict attention to the traffic environment and processing a vast array of different incoming and potential hazards, commercial vehicle drivers are normally very stressed up by their work.
A large number of studies have indicated that commercial vehicle driving is a high-strain occupation characterised by high demands, low control and low support, leading to a high risk of physical and mental ill-health.
Studies have also shown that a commercial vehicle driver’s mental wellbeing can be compromised, with 13% of the sample of drivers in a study scoring in the range equivalent to hospitalised psychiatric patients, as a consequence of work-related stress!
Like their operators, vehicles that have reached a certain age are also subjected to undergoing an annual test (at least, depending on their respective ages and conditions) to ensure they remain mechanically fit for road use.
Statistics have also shown that mechanical defects had caused just below three percent of road crashes and yet drivers, whose errors and omissions are the main cause of over 95% of road crashes, do not have to prove that they too are fit (enough) for the roads.
In an ideal situation, once someone has passed the initial competency test, the person should never need to prove their safe driving ability again. However, as we get older, wiser, are more experienced and become more safety conscious, over the years our driving standards tend to become corrupted with bad habits and an over-inflated opinion of our own driving competence and our ability to drive consistently safe.
It has been estimated that road user factors are the sole or contributory factors in a great majority of road crashes. Drivers play an important role to align their respective driving activities so that they are in accordance to the road environment situations and the capabilities of their vehicles.
Failure of the part of any of these three elements – road user, vehicle and road environment, will create an incident which may or may not cause injury, death and/or damage to property.
Although age is just a number, the question is at what age do we need to prove that we are fit to drive/ride or otherwise? In most cases (in Malaysia, at least), even after a driver has met with a major accident in which he might escape from being punished by the law, that driver is still not subjected to any requirement to prove his roadworthiness.
The same goes with motorists who were former stroke patients who are back behind the wheel. In Malaysia, no particular tests, assessments, refresher courses or any such rules have been imposed by the authorities, so far, on such motorists.
# The writer is a road safety advocate with 18 years’ experience in transportation and road safety, a chartered member with Chartered Institute of Logistic Transport UK, Diploma in Advanced Driving from Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) UK and currently in the final semester to complete the Master in Occupational Safety and Health Risk Management.