A Clones man who has been driving for a living all his life, says he objects to new proposals to make the over 70s undergo refresher driving tests. Under the new European Commission proposals, people aged 70 or over will have to take regular medical tests and re-sit their driving test, if they want to retain their driver's licence.
On any given day, Walter Pringle can be seen driving lorries, cars and vans; or even a recovery truck with trailer attached, drawing two cars, through Belfast. In addition, he told the Joe Finnegan Show he has just been to the optician to have his peripheral vision checked and is bringing those results to his GP so that he can be certified to continue driving. Mr Pringle said drivers his age "already have to prove their competence and fitness to drive" so he didn't see the need to make everyone in the over 70s age bracket to continuously re-train.
While he admitted he failed his driving test first time around, he passed every subsequent test since including one to drive a 45-seater school bus. Mr Pringle said it is unfair that his age already prevents him from doing some paid driving work: "I feel that having done two different tests in 45-seater buses, having continued to drive the little recovery lorry with a trailer on and cars on both, that I'm well up to speed ad kept at my standard," Walter Pringle told Northern Sound, "and I think I should be able to drive three miles into Clones and help these people out by doing a school run when they're stuck."
