2024-02-27 03:30:06
A gendarme checks the driving license of a motorist, in Noyal-Chatillon-sur-Seiche (Ille-et-Vilaine), October 17, 2019. DAMIEN MEYER / AFP
A bill “fall away”, « inadmissible » et “unacceptable”, wrote the 40 Million motorists association in a petition. Tuesday February 27 and Wednesday February 28, MEPs must examine a text from the European Parliament’s Transport Committee aimed at calling into question the principle of a lifetime driving license. One of the measures is particularly debated: the establishment of a compulsory medical examination every fifteen years, necessary for its renewal.
This test would be used to check the fitness to drive of all road users in the European Union (EU) by testing their vision, hearing and reflexes. According to French environmentalist MEP Karima Delli, rapporteur of the bill, the objective is to reduce the number of deaths on Europe’s roads by 50% by 2030, and to achieve “zero deaths and serious injuries” by 2050. “Mental and physical health are of crucial importance for driving”she says.
In several European states – in Spain, Greece and the Czech Republic, in particular – similar measures have been put in place without it being possible to evaluate their effects. If the proposed law aims to extend this principle to all EU member states, it is because it intends “respond to current road safety challenges”, to know : “the aging of its population”specifies Karima Delli’s entourage.
All ages
Alzheimer’s, cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), head trauma, epilepsy… If the text is primarily aimed at the elderly, it is aimed at all road users, “because disabling pathologies can affect people of any age”, insists Doctor Michel Avisse, president of the association of approved doctors Permicomed.
According to a list of recommendations established by the College of General Medicine and the French Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, among others, patients with a major neurocognitive disorder represent “too great a risk of driving error or accident”. For these people, health professionals recommend a total cessation of driving motorized vehicles, “because having Alzheimer’s increases the risk of collision by 2.5 times”, explains Philippe Lauwick, general practitioner and member of the National Road Safety Council. According to him, several pathologies can be the cause of following-effects responsible for a significant reduction in analytical abilities, such as strokes or head trauma. He also points out that certain drug treatments can impair driving, such as antidepressants or anxiolytics such as Lexomil. “To drive, you must have a certain ability to take in information, process it and execute the appropriate maneuver”explains the doctor.
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