Drivers over 70 who fail test to lose licence in | Tech News

Older motorists may face obligatory eyesight checks – and lose their licence in the event that they fail – underneath powerful new street security reforms aimed toward chopping Britain’s stubbornly high death toll on the roads. In the most important overhaul of UK driving legal guidelines in years, ministers are additionally contemplating slashing the drink-drive restrict, introducing harder penalties for failing to put on a seatbelt, and cracking down tougher on uninsured drivers.

The bundle of measures, set to be unveiled in the autumn as half of a new street security strategy, comes amid mounting alarm on the quantity of people being killed or severely injured on Britain’s roads – a determine that has barely budged in over a decade. Last yr alone, 1,633 people misplaced their lives and nearly 28,000 suffered life-changing accidents in crashes. The invoice to the NHS runs to more than £2 billion a yr.

A Labour source stated: “At the end of the last Labour government, road deaths were at a record low. Since then, progress has stalled. In no other area would we tolerate 1,600 people dying every year.”

The reforms being thought-about by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander embody chopping the legal alcohol restrict for drivers in England and Wales from 35 micrograms per 100ml of breath to 22 – in line with Scotland and the remainder of Europe. England and Wales at the moment have the best restrict in the EU, a place campaigners say is costing lives.

Drink-driving deaths have surged to a 13-year high, prompting ministers to admit that current deterrents are no longer working.

Meanwhile, drug-driving can also be on the rise, with police set to be given powers to prosecute offenders on the premise of roadside saliva checks reasonably than slower blood evaluation.

The eyesight crackdown is anticipated to be one of probably the most contentious adjustments.

At current, the UK is one of solely three international locations in Europe that depends solely on drivers self-reporting imaginative and prescient issues.

Under the new guidelines, motorists aged over 70 would face a obligatory eye test each three years. Anyone who fails would robotically lose their licence.

Ministers stated: “This is about protecting every road user. With an ageing population, we cannot ignore the safety risks posed by deteriorating eyesight, especially on high-speed roads like motorways.”

A Labour spokesperson stated: “This Labour Government will deliver the first road safety strategy in a decade, imposing tougher penalties on those breaking the law, protecting road users and restoring order to our roads.”

The proposals are anticipated to exit to public session later this yr – however with casualty numbers stubbornly high and the UK lagging behind its European neighbours on key security measures, ministers are underneath strain to act fast.

The spokesperson added: “Every one of these deaths is preventable.

“We can not keep accepting the identical grim statistics yr after yr whereas the law stays caught in the previous.”