The man driving the car was 83. Everything about this is a tragedy for everyone involved. But in my opinion, the only question about this should be: Why can you keep a drivers licence for the rest of your life after one driving test you did when you were 18? We need to go to car inspection after 4 years of buying a new car for safety. Why not do the same with your drivers licence after a certain amount of time?
What’s your opinion about this?
[HLN](https://www.hln.be/pelt/ze-droegen-een-fluojasje-en-de-oversteekplaats-was-verlicht-veel-vraagtekens-na-dodelijk-ongeval-met-kind-10-in-pelt~a424b198/)
27 comments
Chances are big that he never had to do any tests, just a one time 50 franc fee at the town office when he was 18 years old to get a life time driving license, just like my grandmother.
Meanwhile youngsters have to pay thousands of euros for lessons and administration.
I don’t get how hard it could be to implement a retest every X years and why doctors can’t retract driving licenses. My grandmother is in no state to drive anymore and yet she does. The amount of times I almost got run over by old people at busy intersections is uncountable.
Why can you keep a drivers license for the rest of your life after ~~one driving test you did when you were 18?~~ picking up the drivers license at your town hall via a simple administrative request?
Practical exams were only introduced in 1977 …
Totally the fault of people who think they can walk anywhere without having a flashing light on their head and a LED strip around their body that is so bright you can see it in fog from 5 KM away. /s
But seriously, this is yet another victim of how car-centered our society has been constructed. Vias is populated with car brains and many of our politicians bow to the car constructors will.
In my eyes we should move to
* Car usage must become more costly
* During road renovations the priority should be pedestrians > bikes > public transportation > cars. Now it is the other way around.
* Around schools a total traffic ban should be implemented between the opening/closing hours.
* Renewal of your driving license should happen every ten years.
* Total ban of public space pollution for parking your car.
* Total ban of any non-professional car movement in any city/village center.
* During the day (06:00-20:00) the speed limit of all streets should be lowered to a level below the current level (50 -> 30, 70 -> 50, 120 -> 90)
And yes, I also drive a car, but I aim for a world where my children are safe and free from pollution and death because distracted drivers. Yes, public transportation must become better but guess what, it ain’t going to become better if we keep under-funding it, starving the beast,…
“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation”
> Why not do the same with your drivers licence after a certain amount of time?
It absolutely 100% should and I’m waiting for the day it finally happens.
His children were probably saying to each other for years: shouldn’t we tell dad he should stop driving?
Oh no, how is the Facebook community going to complain about the pedestrians and cyclists now? /s
Met de vergrijzing gaan we dit soort accidenten steeds frequenter meemaken. Onze ouders gaan hun auto nooit uit eigen beweging opgeven omdat ze hun volwassen leven alle afstanden met de auto afgelegd hebben en de auto inleveren hun vrijheid tot bewegen inperkt. En dat klopt, want het openbaar vervoer in zijn huidige vorm biedt enkel soelaas, geen oplossing. De elektrische fiets biedt uitkomst, maar niet voor alle verplaatsingen.
Oud worden betekent ook een terugval in fysieke mogelijkheden en achteruitgang van zintuigen zoals zicht. In mijn kennissenkring kent iedereen wel een opa/oma/nonkel of tante die eigenlijk niet meer in staat is om met de wagen te rijden, maar dat nog wel gewoon doet. Tijd dat er daadkrachtige medische controles en recurrente terugkeermomenten komen om de rijvaardigheid en kennis van verkeersregels te testen. In de huidige vorm te laks en dat zullen we met levens betalen.
I would support it, AS LONG AS IT WAS SENSIBLE.
Checking if someone can still drive properly, good. But taking away a drivers license because of parallel parking or not knowing how many meters from a crossroads is a parking free zone if the road is a gewestweg and there is a zebrapad but the road to the right is a zandpad met verharde oprit…. yeah let’s not do bullshit like that.
I’m opposed to just doing your driving test again every couple of years, certainly since a driving test doesn’t give the full story about how someone drives. Stress, a busy day or a pain in the ass examinator can keep a perfectly fine driver from getting their license.
I am in favour however of a mandatory medical check-up every couple of years once you turn 70. If the doctor finds you to be incapable of safe driving, you lose your license.
I have a physical disability. I registered this when I did my exams & when I got my license. From the moment I had my first license I got one for a 5 year period. After that period my ability to drive has to be re-evaluated. I feel that this is a good system use for people without a disability too. Maybe not a 5 year period, maybe a 10 year period, or maybe from a certain age onward….
It always struck me as strange that system was only for people who register it. People can hide a lot of reasons they are physically unable to drive if no one does a thorough medical examination.
Belgium really needs to do something about those fucking N-roads.
In another thread, they are talking about the redesign of the N1 in Vilvoorde. Yet another example of an N road going through the center. In the past, these roads might have made sense, nowadays, it doesn’t.
My own town has the same issue:
[https://www.google.com/maps/@50.9010002,4.0064989,1018m/data=!3m1!1e3](https://www.google.com/maps/@50.9010002,4.0064989,1018m/data=!3m1!1e3)
The thing i always find ridiculous is that it’s always ‘new drivers will have to do x or y or sacrifice chickens to the blood god’ But never ‘existing drivers will also have to do these increased tests’
Off fucking course, an old geezer again.
Sure some people drive like maniacs and some younger people should get a driving license in the first place but I feel like there is a taboo on speaking out against people keeping their driving license indefinitely.
Some years ago now, we heard from a nearby chiro group that a driver driven into their group when they were going to camp by bike. The driver “was blinded by the sun” and elderly. The only reason the girl that got hit survived, was because chiro offers fire and first aid/resuscitation training for free to leaders (took both, highly recommend anyone to take one if they get the chance). Imagine what a horrible experience it must be to have to put to practice resuscitation on one of your own members.
Some people suggest having it after x years but honestly, that’s just going to overflow driving schools and examination centers. Tons of people are ok behind the wheel without the need of being tested every couple of years. I propuse that once you retire, you do these exams again and then get tested every 5 years by a driving school, not an exam center. A short drive around and it should be clear who can and who shouldn’t drive anymore.
Its failed Flemish politics.
There is no money anymore for anything related to children.
Let them die.. (literal)!
For example, I’ve a school at walkable distance but we had to look for a school at 10min driving, because there was no place.So every morning I drive to school and I will keep doing this even when my daughters get old enough to bike because the road is very dangerous.
Going to school, I cross 3 huge complexes for old people…
I live in a third-world country (Chile) and here every 5 years we have to redo a motor skills test, which for sure would keep these older fellows off the road. :/
No political party is going to implement this. Because if you tell every 70+yr old they have to prove that they can drive a car, they will not vote for you.
How have your efforts been to convince family/parents/grandparents that driving at 80+ is a bad idea?
I’ve been trying but every time I get met with a guilting look as if I’m the bad guy here:
* “But her car is her freedom”
* “She always drove it, what will she do otherwise”
* “I don’t think she’s going to give it up”
* “In 30 years I never had an accident! (Lie)”
While the rest of the family is just happy that she lives on her own because they don’t want to take care of her because she’s such an unlikeable character.
She literally only has to walk 10min to the trainstation. The money she spends on a car/insurance she can spend on taxi’s and still profit. But nonono, She’s too proud that she can still drive her car at 85 ;). Soon she’ll run over a kid because her reflexes are bad.
“Oops I didn’t see it, honest accident. It can happen to anyone.”
A lot of the comments here suggest changes to the road rules, lowering speed limits etc, which is great, but none of it helps if nobody *enforces* those rules.
I have never, not once, seen the police in Belgium stop a road user for doing something stupid or obviously illegal (even though I’ve seen them witness such things several times).
At the start of every school year, a couple police officers come and stand near the school “watching traffic” (chatting to each other). Meanwhile, 100m away, cars are going 70 before reaching the end of the 30 zone _after dropping their own kids off at that school_.
Some speed cameras would be an easy start. And not the permanent, big, obvious ones with calibration marks painted on the roads but at least make an effort to conceal them and move them around.
Omdat mensen niet doorhebben dat ze met een zeer ingewikkelde en zware machine rijden. En omdat overheden en autoconstructeurs er alles aan doen om hen geen strobreed in de weg te leggen. En omdat we als maatschappij die zever blijven aanvaarden. En omdat er geen comfortabele manieren bestaan voor bejaarden om zich te verplaatsen omdat ons openbaar vervoer al jaren vakkundig de nek wordt omgewrongen. En en en.
I’ve said for years, I feel they should retest people every 5/10 years
Mayor: “a road that is designed for driving 70 km/h”: 70 km/h is rather high for zebra crossings without traffic lights on a long road which invites speeding. A bit further down the same road (also 70 km/h) there’s a zebra crossing which isn’t even illuminated…
Moreover, the narrow bike lanes are located directly next to the cars and heavy trucks, as is the case on so many roads in Flanders…
In the same sentiment , why do we have to return after nine months when the next decades are probably when we will forget the less know,n very rare rules
Do a “terugkommoment” after x years of driving. Not when everything is fresh in the mind
This could’ve been prevented if the right infrastructure was in place. In this case, a 2-phase pedestrian crossing with a refuge island in the center so that pedestrians only need to cross 1 lane of cars at the same time.
Sadly, many more will die in situations like this until we have that infrastructure
Ik heb hier echt nul vraagtekens bij. Bestuurder in personenwagen rijdt kind dood. Dit is de taks die de maatschappij bereid is te betalen zolang ze maar overal met hun auto naartoe kunnen. Niets zal veranderen. Pakje saffen nodig? Auto. Brood halen? Auto. Pendelen? Auto. Auto. Auto. Auto van zodra je ballen zakken tot je in je graf ligt. Alles altijd auto.
The accident in Zottegem a few days ago with a dead 3 yo and wounded mom was caused by a 88 yo. Perhaps it’s just freaky accidental, perhaps it isn’t.
I remember my grandmother once hit another car because of a slower response time. She decided then and there to never drive again.
As long as the car is the only viable alternative, this is the price we’ll be paying.
Somebody that old should not be behind the wheel. But you also can’t just take away somebody’s only method of transportation. In an ideal world, he’d have three or four other modes of transport available.
But he didn’t, and so a child had to die.
A driver license should expire every 10 years in my opinion. Everytime I said that, a whole bunch of people complain about the cost and how it’s a rip off etc etc. Or people saying “but then the old people will fail and you take away their mobility”. Because an unfit person driving with the risk of killing someone is much better than “stealing” their mobility. Sure, let everyone drive, who cares anyway. Surely the parents of that kid will understand.
I’m a disabled person, I drive and I get tested to see if I’m still fit to drive every 10 years. Once my condition gets worse, I’ll get tested every 5 years. I’m absolutely OK with that because I want to be safe !