Wissing continues to protect senior citizens from fitness to drive tests
For many older people, driving is an expression of their self-determination. That is why debates about this regularly boil over. Transport Minister Wissing continues to reject tests on their fitness to drive. However, figures from 2022 show that they would make perfect sense.
In the debate about the driving ability of senior citizens, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing rejects regular, mandatory self-assessment for older people. This would mean unnecessary bureaucracy, Wissing told radio station WDR 5: "It's just dealing with forms without improving road safety." The purpose of this measure is not clear to him. That is why he cannot support it. "I don't want to be involved in creating unnecessary bureaucracy at a time when bureaucracy is already threatening to suffocate us."
There is a shortage of skilled workers in German administrations, said Wissing in Brussels. Civil servants are needed for important tasks, not to file questionnaires.
The EU transport ministers want to define their position on new driving license regulations in the EU. Among other things, this involves requirements for older people. For example, the conditions under which driving licenses must be regularly renewed in future are up for debate. In March, the EU Commission proposed that people over 70 should either complete a self-assessment of their fitness to drive every five years or undergo a medical examination.
Current figures show that the behavior of older people in road traffic is still relevant. If older drivers are involved in an accident resulting in personal injury, they are more likely to be primarily responsible than younger drivers. In more than two thirds of cases, drivers aged 65 and over were the main culprits in such cases in 2022, according to the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. For drivers over the age of 75, it was even more than three quarters of cases.
Senior citizens drive less often
Generally speaking, older people - measured in terms of their share of the population - are less likely to be involved in road accidents than younger people. According to the statistics office, this is probably mainly due to the fact that they participate less frequently in road traffic, for example because they no longer drive to work.
This means that very young adults cause a disproportionately high number of accidents among drivers under the age of 65. If an 18 to 20-year-old was at the wheel, they were primarily responsible for the accident in 70.8 percent of cases.
The causes of car accidents differ between older people and younger age groups. Car drivers of senior citizens, for example, were accused of disregarding the right of way or priority of other vehicles proportionately more often than those under 65 (21.1 percent to 16.6 percent). Incorrect behavior when turning, reversing, reversing, driving in and driving off also occurred more frequently than among younger people (22.3 percent to 19.2 percent).
In contrast, older people were much less likely to be accused of failing to keep a safe distance (10.8 percent to 16.3 percent), driving at an inappropriate speed (5.2 percent to 11.4 percent) or driving under the influence of alcohol (1.1 percent to 4.3 percent).
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Despite Volker Wissing's opposition to regular fitness to drive tests for seniors due to bureaucracy concerns, EU transport ministers are considering new driving license regulations for older people, including mandatory self-assessments or medical examinations every five years for those over 70, as proposed by the EU Commission in March. Notably, data from the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden indicates that senior citizens, particularly those over 65 and 75, are more frequently responsible for traffic accidents resulting in personal injury.
Source: www.ntv.de
