BARP’s drivers plea

Drivers 70 years old and over should not be required to get a medical certifiction to qualify for car insurance.
President of the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) Ernest Batson said the regulation was a financial burden and unnecessary as there was no evidence that drivers in their seventies chalked up more accidents than younger drivers.
Drivers in that age range were behind the wheel less frequently, limiting their driving at nights, becoming more health conscious, living longer and leading more productive lives, Batson said.
“The current regulations impose a significant financial burden on individuals with a fixed and reduced income, who must pay doctors annually for an examination and certification of their fitness to drive,” the BARP?president said.
In March BARP wrote to the Ministry of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment requesting a change in the regulations which require people seventy years and over to obtain an annual physical examination when applying for a driver’s license.  BARP has proposed that the medical checks should apply to people in their eighties.
Full story in the SATURDAY SUN