Recently the Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology (MIST), Senator Kay McConney, while she was speaking during an interview on CBC TV8 announced that Barbadians will be able to renew and pay for their driver’s licenses online by the end of June this year.
Yes, while this is an excellent and welcomed initiative, the government needs to revisit the legislation where at seventy years of age you can no longer get a five-year driver’s license. The government needs to come in line with the rest of the world, where all over the world five-year licenses are issued to drivers regardless of age.
The issuing of a one-year license at the age of seventy is a lot of red tapes, a hassle in all the running around to get a doctor’s certificate as well as having to stand in a long line to pay, a waste of material, paperwork and most important a waste of human resources that could be spent on more important internal matters.
There are many people in our society over seventy years that are in better physical shape than a lot of people under the age of seventy years, who are more responsible and adhere to and respect the motor laws of the country. They are a lot of younger people who have physical challenges and eye challenges and are allowed to have a five-year license. There are a number of other changes that need to be made to the road laws and one of them definitely would be the extending of the one-year license to five years.
Although the reason for the one-year license might be more of an income revenue earner for the government which in my mind I cannot see it raking in that amount of taxes as compared to five years and the waste of human resources as well as all the hassle for the license holder.
Another point that should be taken into consideration would be the many short and long term tourists that come to our shores each year and have to go through the same hassle as the local license holders in obtaining a license for a short period of time that they are here[. More than likely, all these tourists would be holders of a valid five years’ driver’s licenses from their respective countries.
Madam Minister, I am making an appeal for myself and on the behalf of those over seventy years that the government would amend the legislation on this law to bring it in line with some international countries
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