Driver’s licence health rules to become stricter

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Driver’s licence health rules to become stricter

 

 

The Department of Land Transport (DLT) is preparing a ministerial regulation to prohibit those with five health issues from obtaining a driver’s licence.

 

It will be implemented early next year, according to DLT deputy director-general Kamol Buranapong.The department was in the process of consulting with the Medical Council and drafting new health criteria for licences.

 

 

They will include five new issues barring an applicant’s eligibility: epileptic seizures, high blood pressure, brain diseases, myocardial infarction and severe diabetes. “It will take about 2-3 months to pass the regulation, hence it should be in effect around February,” Kamol said.

 

There are already five diseases that prohibit a person from obtaining a driver’s licence: elephantiasis, TB, leprosy, alcoholism and drug addiction.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30333233

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-12-05

[Crossy]

Sadly the effect will be somewhere approaching zero

[Totster]

Unfortunately, not having a driving license here is not a reason to stop driving..

 

totster 

[worgeordie]

What about adding Mental illness,if it was enforced ,i think 

quite a few drivers already on the roads would lose their

licenses,the one's that loose it when you sound your horn 

at them ,when they have nearly taken the front off your vehicle

 by cutting you off.

regards worgeordie

[robblok]

Sadly the effect will be somewhere approaching zero

Yes because the certificates are too easy to get without any real health checks.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[kotsak]

If the regulations were duly enforced the roads would have been almost empty 

[darksidedog]

I would have thought that any of these illnesses should have been just reason not to issue a driving license already. While this is a tiny step in the right direction, taking action against the healthy, but speeding, negligent and reckless drivers should be more of a priority if they ever really want to bring accidents and deaths down.

Edited December 5, 2017 by darksidedog

[BEVUP]

So now we're going to pay a couple of thousand for a driving medical

[BEVUP]

35 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

What about adding Mental illness,if it was enforced ,i think 

quite a few drivers already on the roads would lose their

licenses,the one's that loose it when you sound your horn 

at them ,when they have nearly taken the front off your vehicle

 by cutting you off.

regards worgeordie

Also the ones that would or should of failed the 3 basic steps IE: depth/colour & perception test at the Transport Department

The ones I watched were pretty bad at braking reflex's & some of them were actually standing up to do the depth perception 

[crazygreg44]

what about lame ducks as stated above, and the thousands of Thais who have bad eyesight but refrain from wearing optical glasses ?  The eyesight tests in the Traffic departments are a joke

[YetAnother]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

They will include five new issues barring an applicant’s eligibility: epileptic seizures, high blood pressure, brain diseases, myocardial infarction and severe diabetes. “It will take about 2-3 months to pass the regulation, hence it should be in effect around February,” Kamol said.

 

There are already five diseases that prohibit a person from obtaining a driver’s licence: elephantiasis, TB, leprosy, alcoholism and drug addiction.

what in the world is all this foolishness ?! are we actually approaching the point where we All have to have a Full Full checkup costing us thousands to screen/assess all this ?

talk about radically impractical; and it reflects very badly on the idiots 'thinking' this up

[djayz]

Phew! That's a relief! Looks like the FIL, who is going blind, can continue driving then. No problems. 

[BEVUP]

& have they got the ability to hold your entire medical history (even though it is unrelated to gaining a license or even employment ) no matter what doctor you see like the West so they can discriminate against you 

[300sd]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

There are already five diseases that prohibit a person from obtaining a driver’s licence: elephantiasis, TB, leprosy, alcoholism and drug addiction.

Think how much worse it could be if they were all licensed.

 

 

2 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Driver’s licence health rules to become stricter

Really that headline should read: Driver's license "driving tests" to become stricter!!! 

 

 

[DrTuner]

And I suppose getting the certificate is the same, popping into any clinic and if you're still breathing, 150 baht, done & dusted.

[nong38]

Would 500bts  make the ailments go away?

[BEVUP]

2 minutes ago, nong38 said:

Would 500bts  make the ailments go away?

I think it might as I visited a Thai doc for a clearance to resume work in my home country ( not that they would of believed that ) & they didn't as they like you to attend their doctors

The most part of the Thai Doc's visit was discussing my earnings with me & wife 

[sweatalot]

not completely wrong. But first things first.

Why not first ensure a comprehensive driving education in theory and practice before they are allowed  to do a strict exam. If they don't pass say 3 times - completely new education. It should cost some money - because if they can afford a vehicle they can afford the fee.

Last but not least - strict enforcement of having a licence when driving with appropriate punishment.

Developed countries can do that.

[tonray]

High Blood Pressure ? You just eliminated 99 % of all drivers over 45

[webfact]

Blame traded over failure to ban epileptic drivers

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

File photo

 

A DECADE after a much-publicised fatal road accident in Bangkok – caused by an epileptic driver suffering a seizure – there is still no rule barring people with epilepsy from getting behind the wheel.

As a result, members of the public have questioned which government agency should take the blame for failing to implement such a ban, after an accident on Monday was initially linked to claims by a driver that he suffered an epileptic fit. 

 

While the Land Transport Department has insisted more discussions with medical specialists are necessary before a related ban can be introduced, the Medical Council has said it has already completed its job in that regard.

 

Land Transport Department deputy director-general Kamol Buranapong said the department had consulted with the Medical Council and a joint committee was drafting new health criteria including five new symptoms that would disqualify applicants from receiving a driving licence. The five symptoms are epileptic seizures, high blood pressure, brain diseases, myocardial infarction and diabetes.

 

Kamol said the department had been working with the Medical Council to designate the new criteria since 2007, but there had not been enforcement because the details were still unclear, which could cause problems for the public and misunderstandings.

 

He said there would be more discussions and he expected the new regulation would be ready within two or three months.

 

“In the meantime, if we have information that people with driver’s licences have health conditions that may be harmful for driving, the department has the authority to inspect their ability and revoke their licence at anytime,” he said.

 

However, Medical Council of Thailand deputy secretary-general Dr Ittaporn Kanacharoen made contradictory statements, saying that the committee drafting the new health criteria had already reached its conclusion and specified the full details of each symptom.

 

He said the Medical Council had been working with the Land Transport Department after a notorious fatal accident in 2007, when Kanpitak Patchimsawat, who is more commonly known as “Moo Ham”, ran his car into a group of bus passengers on the pavement, killing one of them.

 

The case gained notoriety given Kanpitak’s allegedly light sentence and his claim that he suffered an epileptic seizure at the time of the incident, which generated public concern about health problems that could affect driving ability and road safety.

 

Ittaporn said that after many years of debate and experience learned from the United States, the European Union and Australia about health conditions affecting the issuance of driver’s licences, medical experts on the committee last year stipulated which medical conditions would preclude a person from receiving a licence.

 

However, he said the new health criteria had not been implemented because the Land Transport Department had to amend its laws and regulations first.

 

Ittaporn added that there would be exceptions for people with the five symptoms if they have medication that can control their symptoms, which should help dispel the public’s concerns.

 

He also emphasised the necessity of enforcement to ensure the safety of drivers, passengers and other people on the road.

 

Public transport drivers would be the first affected by the new regulation, he said.

 

However, many people have raised questions whether the new stricter health criteria would help improve road safety.

 

Dr Withawat Siriprachai, a former director of Koh Lanta Hospital and administrator of the Facebook page Drama Addict, said driver’s licence applicants only had to present a medical certificate showing that they did not have the specified symptoms, which would not really prove that they are healthy.

 

“Not only do we have the problem that there are medical certificates for sale without real check-ups, even for those people who do have check-ups, it is very hard for a doctor to diagnose some symptoms such as epileptic seizures,” Withawat wrote on Facebook.

 

“Many of these symptoms are very hard to detect, so a medical certificate cannot guarantee that a person is healthy, as has been confirmed. And we still do not have a central patient database, which makes it impossible to verify a medical certificate.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30333263

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-12-06

[Get Real]

10 hours ago, worgeordie said:

What about adding Mental illness,if it was enforced ,i think 

quite a few drivers already on the roads would lose their

licenses,the one's that loose it when you sound your horn 

at them ,when they have nearly taken the front off your vehicle

 by cutting you off.

regards worgeordie

I get you, I seriously do! 
The big problem here is that they do not determine mental illness here in the same way as you would like.
Here you are not mentally ill when you react to someone honking the horn at you. To recieve the mental illness medal, you must much more deranged.

[Lingba]

First of all...this should read..."Drivers license road competency rules become stricter"

secondly ..we all know that any idiot can walk into a doctors office and obtain a health certificate for 50 baht without any kind of checkup....so whats the point of this?

[BudRight]

The only health check you need for a driver's license in my Western country of origin is a vision test.

[trogers]

A few years ago, we had problems with mentally ill drivers, and now epileptic ones.

 

But the bread and butter of issuing authorities come first.

[r136dg]

 

13 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

There are already five diseases that prohibit a person from obtaining a driver’s licence: elephantiasis, TB, leprosy, alcoholism and drug addiction.

That's really interesting but why isn't ignorance on that list? 

I remember people failing at the braking part of the test. The written part lost another >25% (approximately). Parallel parking lost another >35% (approximately).

[yankee99]

High blood pressure is going to eliminate a lot of drivers over 50. I dont know the numbers but i bet its close to 20% and probably goes higher with age.

[bangkokheat]

who didnt see this coming after the "epilectic" accident

[Wiggy]

And in next week's news: "Five dead in car crash: Government to crackdown on drivers with new licence ruling." Etc., ad infinitum.

[Bob12345]

13 hours ago, Crossy said:

Sadly the effect will be somewhere approaching zero

Exactly, but the whole idea is also not to solve the problem but just to give the impression things are being done.

 

As always its important to quickly react to news articles with new measures.

Often the new measures are already announced before the cause of the, in this case, accident is properly determined (did he have a seizure or was the guy high on drugs? ).

By reacting quick it looks like the department making the announcement is right on top of things and face has been restored.

In reality there is a good chance the measure will never be implemented, the impact is zero, or the details not known now will have a huge negative impact, but that all does not matter as by that time everybody has forgotten about it already.

 

Again, nobody cares about the deaths and injured or making driving more safe.

All they care about is their jobs and making themselves look important.

[mark01]

Usual ill-conceived response that will make absolutely no difference to the number of road accidents on Thai roads