We test the car, but not the driver

THE main reason for road accidents is the appalling standard of driving.

Many drivers have never passed the test and many learners who have failed it at least once are unfit to be on the road.

Then there are older people who were able to buy driving licences across the post office counter, like dog-licences, without even doing a test. This group includes senior judges and politicians.

They — and especially civil servants in the Department of Transport — should let us know whether they have passed the driving test.

Instead we hear nonsense from older people about how they have been driving for 40 years and never had an accident. But how many have they caused by wobbling out of boreens or by driving on the wrong side of the road and overtaking several cars at once, while honking furiously?

The Road Safety Authority ran an excellent TV ad a few years ago demonstrating how to drive on roundabouts. Did it make any difference? Not a bit.

Another major problem is that while cars must have regular tests, the roadworthiness of drivers seems to be taken for granted. Anyone who has failed the test should be kept off the road unless he or she is accompanied by a qualified driver in a vehicle displaying L-plates or, preferably, have undertaken a course at an approved driving school.

All drivers should have to pass a test every five years or so, and if they don’t, they should be considered to be driving without a licence. Such a scheme would at least give drivers who passed the test the satisfaction of knowing that their driving is up to the expected standard of competence.

Terry O’Neill

29 Haven Hill

Summercove

Kinsale

Co Cork