Since a deadly car ramming in New Taipei Monday, national attention has tended to focus on the driver's age: 78. Now, the transportation ministry says stricter license renewal rules are on the way for older drivers.
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00:00Mourners gather at the site of a car ramming in New Taipei that killed three people and
00:05left 12 injured on Monday.
00:07Though police have ruled out drunk driving, the driver has been unconscious since the
00:11crash, so it's unclear why he sped through a restricted zone and rammed into a busy intersection.
00:17Whatever happened, much discussion of the crash has focused on the fact that the driver
00:21was 78 years old, and it just renewed his license without problems in February despite
00:26having hit at least one other pedestrian in the past.
00:29Among those who've weighed in is New Taipei's mayor.
00:32Though drivers in the 18 to 24-year-old age bracket caused the most accidents in Taiwan,
00:47the number of those involving senior citizens has risen in recent years.
00:50In the days since the crash, attention has turned to how other countries with aging populations
00:55handle older drivers, and whether Taiwan should learn from them.
00:59On Tuesday, the Transportation Ministry announced stricter rules for drivers over 70 that it's
01:03been working on for several months.
01:05The full details are yet to come, but as soon as next year, the age at which older drivers
01:10must renew their licenses will go from 75 down to 70.
01:14To get a new license, senior citizens will need to pass new cognitive and agility tests,
01:19and those with a record of breaking traffic rules or causing accidents will have to do additional,
01:23practical training.
01:24But there will also be an incentive for drivers 70 and up who hand over their licenses for good,
01:30a monthly commuter pass.
01:32The ministry says these rules are meant to help senior citizens, not create a stigma.
01:36But there are concerns, especially for people who live in rural areas, where public transportation is
01:53sparse or far away.
02:18In the cabinet building, a league of NGOs and smaller political parties is banding together
02:22to voice their own critiques of the new policies.
02:25None of these parties have sitting lawmakers right now, but they hope their demands will
02:29be heard.
02:30One is better traffic safety features around schools.
02:33Monday's crash happened near a school, and many of the killed and injured were students.
02:38But there's more.
02:52And there were criticisms of recent government policy changes, too.
02:56Changes they say make it so traffic rules often go unenforced.
02:59Though some, including a former colleague of the driver behind Monday's crash, believe this
03:16was a case of road rage, the incident has highlighted once again that Taiwan's population is only
03:21getting older, and that older people's mobility will be a big challenge for the government.
03:26Devon Tsai and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.