In Japan, dealing with the ones who are too old to drive
One high-profile roadway fatality indicates the growing need for a new law that tests whether those older than 75 have the cognitive functions to be safe drivers
The recent involvement of a former high-profile Japanese official in a fatal roadway accident has underscored the increasing need to screen elderly drivers who no longer have the cognitive functions to be responsible behind the wheel.
The former head of Tokyo’s elite special investigative team, 78-year-old Tatsuhiro Ishikawa, was questioned on Sunday morning after the car he had been driving went through a roadside barrier and hit a pedestrian before finally coming to a halt inside a shop. The pedestrian, Takayuki Horiuchi, 37, later died of his injuries.
The accident made headlines in Japan not just because of the driver’s high-profile career – Ishikawa oversaw corruption and bribery investigations for the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office for two years from 1989 – but also because it has demonstrated that even people with the sharpest minds are susceptible to catastrophic errors of judgment as they get older.
Japan’s road authorities have long recognised that the nation’s ticking demographic time bomb will inevitably have an impact on the transport sector, and the government has introduced revisions to the Road Traffic Law, which went into effect in March last year. Under the new requirements, anyone 75 or older must obtain a certificate of competence to drive when they renew their driving licence every three years.
Ishikawa’s accident came just three days after the National Police Agency released a report on vehicle accidents during 2017 that showed older drivers are far more likely to be involved in a fatality on the nation’s roads than younger drivers.
