From next month, driving test applicants will lose a greater number of points during the practical part of the test if they do not use their indicators before turning or changing lanes, the Directorate-General of Highways said yesterday.
The directorate said that many traffic accidents are caused by motorists who do not indicate, adding that increasing the deduction of points during the driving test would encourage drivers to cultivate good habits.
According to the directorate, driving test examiners will check whether test applicants use their indicators at crucial points during the practical driving exam.
In addition, drivers will be deducted points if they do not check their mirrors before exiting the vehicle, the directorate said.
The directorate said that drivers will be deducted 16 points each time they fail to indicate on a turn, adding that applicants will also lose points if they fail to check for blind spots at the appropriate time.
Test candidates will fail the examination if they make two such infringements, the highways directorate added.
Currently, such a violation only costs test takers eight points each time.
In addition, drivers will lose eight points if they do not check their mirrors before opening their vehicle’s doors.
They will also be deducted 16 points if they use their left foot to control the brake pedal.
People riding motorcycles with an engine size of between 50 cubic centimeters (CC) and 250CC are also set to face stricter test standards. Motorcyclists who fail to properly place their feet on the foot rests will be deducted eight points.
In addition, motorcyclists who accelerate while operating their brakes will be penalized eight points for failing to operate the vehicle correctly.
Aside from making turns and changing lanes, the directorate also reminded drivers that they must indicate and check for blind spots while reversing, parallel parking and driving on winding roads.
Rebecca Chen (陳燕芬), a bank clerk living in Taoyuan County, said that the stricter test standards should help drivers develop better habits, although she said that most drivers are likely to forget the rules once they get their driver’s license.
“Whether or not they will actually follow the rules is another thing, but it [a strict driving test] would at least help reinforce what they are supposed to do when they are on the road,” Chen said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater