Last month, an 87-year-old cabby was involved in three accidents within nine days.

On January 11, his cab hit a parked motorcycle in Quarry Bay, although the rider was not injured. The next day, the cabby and his passenger were slightly injured in a mishap in Admiralty, although no other vehicles were involved.

Then, on January 19, he apparently lost control of his vehicle in Wan Chai, hitting a car on the road before running into another eight vehicles nearby.

The food delivery man’s death on Tuesday prompted a motorcyclist to initiate an online petition urging the authorities to ban those over 65 from driving public vehicles.

Asking to be identified only by his last name Gill, the 31-year-old said he worked as a salesman in the textile industry and had experienced the bad behaviour of older public transport drivers himself.

As of Saturday night, more than 500 people had added their names to his petition.

Gill said they were not discriminating against all older motorists, but wanted the authorities to look more closely at elderly drivers of public transport vehicles and ban those aged 65 and above from driving taxis and minibuses.

He asked why Hong Kong cabbies could continue driving even into old age, when many jobs had a retirement age of 65. People could even start driving taxis in their 70s, despite not being in the best shape physically or mentally, he added.

Gill urged the authorities “to revisit the policies on elderly drivers, since most motorcyclists have experienced their aggressive, ignorant and arrogant behaviour first hand”.

He said he was aiming for 5,000 signatures before he would submit the petition to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, but he has not set a deadline.

Hong Kong had more than 91,000 taxi driver licence holders aged 60 to 69, and 30,000 aged 70 to 79 as of January 31, according to official data.

According to official figures last year, the average age of the city’s cabbies was 59, with four in five aged over 50.

There were 2,320 traffic incidents involving cabbies aged 55 or above in 2020, nearly double the number involving those 54 or younger.

In 2021, 970 cabbies aged 60 to 64 were involved in accidents, the highest of all age groups of cabbies. Among private car drivers, the biggest group involved in mishaps that year were the 1,471 aged 35 to 39.

Unhappy to hear about the petition, Hong Kong Taxi Owners’ Association chairman Wong Po-keung, 75, said it discriminated against the elderly.

“Getting old does not necessarily mean you will cause an accident,” he said, adding that attitude mattered more than age as a cause of mishaps.

A cabby for 55 years who still drove his taxi to earn a living, he said he had not been in an accident in 20 years.

He felt Hong Kong’s existing legal requirement for drivers aged 70 and above to submit the results of a physical check-up every year or every three years was good enough and there was no need for an age limit.

Ringo Lee Yiu-pui, a non-official member of the Road Safety Council, a government advisory body, said the recent public concern over older cabbies was understandable but, instead of a ban, he suggested imposing stricter medical check-up requirements for public transport drivers over 60.

He said it was time to tighten rules and require drivers to undergo more comprehensive annual medical checks, something that had been discussed for years, instead of the current practice of just seeing a family doctor.

Dr Paul Shea Tat-ming, a specialist in geriatric medicine, said that although all drivers aged 70 or above had to produce a health certificate when renewing their driving licence, the current check-up was not thorough enough to ensure road safety.

While a developed city had to accept that elderly people would continue driving, there were physical issues related to ageing, such as deterioration of eyesight, hearing and joint function, he said.

Lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon said it would not be right to tighten the rules for elderly drivers in response to individual accidents, but the government should act if such incidents increased.

“Setting an age cap is also risky, considering the shortage of manpower in the industry,” she added.