Death - by Sleep !

The crash of a Germanwings airliner that killed a hundred and fifty people in the French Alps threw the spotlight on the medical regimen imposed on pilots.  They are subjected to regular medical examinations and as they grow older these include psychological examinations.  The testing authorities go to great lengths to ensure that the person at the controls of an airplane is fit to carry out that task.

Compare that to the scene on the roads of New South Wales.  On any busy highway we are seeing a constant stream of thousands of cars an hour, each with a driver behind the wheel who simply filled out an application form prior to receiving their driving license and who ticked boxes to disclose any relevant medical conditions.   Gaining a car driving license does not involve a medical examination.  All that is then required is the satisfactory completion of a physical driving test conducted by an examiner.

Both the initial application for a driving license and subsequent renewals require an answer to boxes that enquire if that person suffers from Epilepsy or Diabetes and there is a "catch all "question requiring disclosure of "any disorder that could affect their ability to drive safely "-  but there is no question to specifically divulge the common disorder known as "Sleep  Apnoea ."

Sleep Apnoea is a condition in which the sufferer is prone to falling asleep involuntarily - and that can happen behind the wheel of a car.  In cases where a crash kills other innocent people the prosecution is hamstrung by a High Court ruling that prevents charges being laid.   That ruling forbids charges for "involuntary acts such as sleep "and is known as the "Jiminez defence ", after the case that gave rise to the ruling.

There have been many cases where Sleep Apnoea has been the cause and this raises the question of how seriously are we treating the issue of car driving licenses  ?   We are subjecting the over eighty-fives to both a medical examination and a further driving test and drivers of heavy transport receive a much more rigorous set of rules, but the vast array of people driving cars simply pass through the system for their entire early years on the basis of what they choose to admit on a paper questionaire.

Getting a license to fly a private plane is a long process which involves a lot of tuition and testing of skills - and consequently it is highly valued by the holder.  The skill factor of a car driver on today's congested roads and higher speed highways is not reflected in the licensing procedure.  The average newly licensed driver has minimum skills and is expected to gain experience by the passage of time.To a degree, this is graded by use of the red and then green "P " plates that are progressively displayed.

A case could be made for a more rigorous approach to issuing car driving licenses.   It would not be unreasonable to demand certification from a medical examination that an applicant is physically and mentally competent to drive a car.  That license is really a permit to take control of a lethal piece of machinery capable of delivering military grade mayhem in the wrong hands.  The harder a license is to obtain, the more it is treasured.  Perhaps we are setting the bar too low and allowing that driving license to be regarded as a "right " rather than as a reward for gaining a higher skill.

If we adopted such an approach, we would need to accompany it's legal importance with a corresponding penalty increase for those detected driving unlicensed.  In reality that penalty would need to be sufficiently draconian that the very idea of getting behind the wheel unlicensed would be "unthinkable " !   It is the fear of consequences that upholds the principle of our entire legal system.

The issue of driving licenses is the prerogative of each individual state and such licenses receive reciprocal recognition across the entire nation.  As a consequence, there is little variation in the driving laws applying in each state and the procedures for obtaining a driving license.  If a new safety standard is to apply, it would need a degree of uniformity.

The only question is whether demanding a higher driver standard would deliver sufficient risk lowering reward to compensate for the costs involved - and the public backlash.