Driving tests are meant to curb accidents

Editor,Alline Akintore’s piece titled ‘The tale of the driver’s permit’ The New Times, October, 22, has the salutary value of launching an interesting and highly relevant debate. But I must say that the overriding goal of driving tests and permits must be road safety. Here where I live in a particularly rule-based European country, driving tests are extremely arduous and many candidates can fail to pass very many times. Not surprisingly, the road safety record in this country far surpasses the Western European average; and I thank God for it. The country, like Rwanda, also uses manual, not automatic transmission, vehicles for the practical driving text. While I cannot be categorical about the underlying reason, I surmise that manual shift vehicles are better than automatics at testing the eye-brain-hand-and-foot coordination that real-life road conditions might impose on drivers. It is also not practical to issue automatic-only vehicle permits so the authorities may wish to ensure that would be drivers pass standard driving tests and obtain standard permits for driving specific classes of motor vehicles whether automatic or manual. In the final analysis, the most important goal of the driver’s permit test policy must be to ensure that the future driver is not a menace for fellow road users. Unfortunately, a drive on our roads demonstrates how far from the case this is. The driving etiquette is atrocious, often bordering on the illegal, with slow-moving cars, for instance, hogging the left faster lane and leaving no choice to those who wish to drive past but to illegally use the right lane to do so. My wife and I had a hair-raising experience on a taxi ride from the Kigali International Airport to downtown recently (as a professional driver, a taxi driver should be above average in knowing and scrupulously respecting the traffic code and road etiquette). However, to my utter disgust and obvious fright, the taxi-man just drove through a red traffic light as if it was his right to do so.As I very loudly remonstrated with him, he claimed that taxis were exempt from having to stop for red lights. My very rude protestations that when the lights were red for us, they were green for drivers in the roads at right angles to our own were mercifully interrupted by an observant traffic police officer who flagged him down to the side of the road and proceeded to give the miscreant a tough lecture, but let him continue with just a warning. The driver probably wished he had never picked us up as I continued the lecture from where the police officer had left off up to our hotel. In conclusion, with these types of drivers, I am only too happy that the traffic police are making it difficult for potential threats to life and limb on the road.Mwene Kalinda

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Driving tests are meant to curb accidents