Starting next month, people taking the motorcycle license test for the first time will be required to attend a two-hour traffic safety lecture before they are allowed to take the test, the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) said yesterday.
First-time motorcycle license test takers are already required to attend a 90-minute safety lecture before receiving their license.
However, from next month, the safety lecture is to feature a new defensive driving component, adding 30 minutes, the highway authority said.
National Police Agency statistics showed that 79.22 percent of people killed in traffic accidents involving motorcycles last year were aged 18 to 19.
The same age group also has the highest fatality rate in A1 category accidents of 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people, the data showed.
A1 traffic accidents are those where a victim dies within 24 hours of an accident.
“This means that young motorcyclists receiving their first license remain high-risk riders,” the agency said. “We hope to instill the concept of defensive driving before they hit the road after the new policy is implemented.”
However, netizens questioned whether a longer traffic safety lecture would improve road safety.
Netizen “Chen Chen” said that driving on the wrong side of the road, failure to keep a safe following distance and speeding are the three most common risky behaviors among motorcyclists.
“I am not sure that the new policy can prevent motorcyclists from engaging in these behaviors and change their concept of driving,” Chen Chen wrote. “It would be better if the DGH raised the difficulty of the license test.”
“Motorcyclists should be given a point for each traffic violation committed and be barred from taking the test if they have accumulated a certain number of points,” the netizen wrote. “Only by so doing can the nation take unfit motorcyclists off the road.”
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