Elderly Drivers Aged 65 and Over Under Current Law
A major traffic accident occurred at the Seoul City Hall Station intersection, resulting in 13 casualties, and with the driver being 68 years old, the issue of 'elderly driver qualifications' has become a focus of attention.
According to fire authorities and police on the 2nd, the driver, Mr. A, who caused the accident on the night of the 1st, was driving the wrong way on a one-way street, hitting two passenger cars and then striking pedestrians waiting at a crosswalk before stopping. It was confirmed that Mr. A was not under the influence of alcohol. He is reportedly claiming that the cause of the accident was a sudden unintended acceleration of the vehicle. However, eyewitnesses at the scene stated that "it is difficult to consider this accident as caused by sudden unintended acceleration," sparking heated controversy over the cause of the accident, including driver fault. Generally, in cases of sudden unintended acceleration, the vehicle forcibly decelerates by colliding with walls or structures before coming to a stop, but this was not the case in this accident.
If the cause of this accident is concluded to be driver fault, the controversy over maintaining elderly driver qualifications is expected to reignite. According to the Korea Road Traffic Authority, while the total number of traffic accidents decreased each year from 2020 to 2022, traffic accidents involving elderly drivers increased to 31,072, 31,841, and 34,652 cases respectively.
Currently, the government imposes stricter licensing qualifications only for those aged 75 and older. They are required to undergo mandatory traffic safety education and dementia (cognitive function) testing. In the case of this driver, who is over 65, cognitive testing is not mandatory, but they are included in the recommended group for traffic safety education.
However, separate from medical evaluations, there are calls for strengthened measures such as assessing actual driving ability. Overseas countries evaluate actual driving skills during elderly drivers' license renewal processes and issue 'conditional licenses' that specify driving permissions based on driving ability. For example, in California, USA, drivers aged 70 and older must undergo supplementary driving skill assessments based on medical evaluations during license reexamination, and conditional licenses are issued according to their abilities. Legislative researcher Song Rim Lee suggested, "To comprehensively measure the actual driving ability reflecting compensatory behaviors of elderly drivers, it is necessary to consider supplementing cognitive function tests with on-road driving evaluations."
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