Never too late to learn...

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 47, 13 June 1974, Page 1

Never too late to

learn...

By

Jim I

Snedden

One is never too young — or too old — to brush up on driving techniques, it seems. After attending a refresher course held by the Ministry of Transport, for the over 70 drivers last week, I feel the idea has merit for younger drivers. There were one or two points raised by the instructor, Mr B. Dunlop, of Rotorua, which, I'm afraid, I had forgotten. Or simply didn't know. In theory, for a person who is on the road most days, there should be very little about the road code I do not know. But even Mr Dunlop admitted, while holding up one volume containing only half the rules governing New Zealand roads, that the code is too much for a normal man to comprehend completely. That may be so, but I came to grief on a question regarding the right hand rule. A shnple rule, but a very important one considering the number of uncontrolled intersections in Taupo. I have heard of countries in Europe pulling drivers in every four or five years and asking them to sit another test. Maybe this would be one way to keep the driving public abreast of the ever-changing road code. But until then it will only be the senior drivers who sit their annual test that will bother to turn up to such a refresher course. Taupo's Senior Traffic Officer, Mr Alan Hyde, said he was a little disappointed at the number who attended last week's session. Of the 180 senior drivers expected to sit their test ag in in Taupo this year, mly 14

were present for the programme of lectures and films. Mr Hyde said the pass rate for the over 70

drivers was fairly high, with only two or three failures each year. Senior drivers posed few problems on the roads.

"They don't do a lot of driving, and most of that is done during the day',, he said. "They are the least of our worries. "It is the under 70 drivers we are more concerned with."