New regulations to assess fitness and ability to drive

New regulations will be made under the Road Traffic Act to provide for the update of medical criteria for examination of fitness and ability to drive as well as for the assessment of drivers prior to issuing of a driving license. At its meeting held on 7 April 2017, the National Road Safety Council, which coordinates the activities of all departments and agencies involved in road safety, endorsed the project on an appropriate legal and regulatory framework as well as a control system on examination of fitness to drive.

As part of the project, medical commissions will be established to deliver certificate of fitness to drive. In that context, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport organised a one-day workshop on basic training in medical examination of fitness to drive this week at the headquarters of the Traffic Management and Road Safety Unit in Port Louis.  

 The workshop brought together some 30 health professionals from both the private and public sector who would be conducting medical examination for fitness and ability to drive. The objective is to enable participants to acquire medical knowledge necessary to assess the fitness to drive of any individual. It also aims at informing medical practitioners of the consequences of allowing a person to continue to drive if unfit to do so. The workshop was conducted by Dr Charles Mercier Guyon, French international he is found expert in Traffic Medicine.

Several topics were discussed namely the epidemiological aspects, the regulatory framework, and the medical and para medical diagnostic tools used for screening and identification of pathologies and associated driving risks. The issue of driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol and medicine was also addressed.

In his presentation, Dr Guyon recalled that the most dangerous risk factor in road traffic is the behaviour of people and that it was imperative to develop the responsibility of drivers with regard to their ability and fitness to drive. He underlined that as a result of progress in technology and knowledge in the field of assessment of medical fitness to drive and related medical treatment, people with pathologies such as epilepsy and diabetes or people with disabilities can drive on condition that there is a medical follow-up and the use of adapted vehicles.