Anna Cox
SHOCKING NEW test results show that over half the number of heavy vehicle drivers on the roads are suffering from serious diseases and 17% are deemed permanently unfit and should not be on the roads at all.
Dr Francois Swanepoel, a general practitioner who worked at the Institute for Aviation Medicine for two years evaluating the health of private pilots and drivers in SAA and the air force, recently conducted tests on 580 drivers.
Of these, 299 were found to be suffering from significant diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, psychiatric conditions (including mental retardation), cardiac conditions, pulmonary disease and visual impairments.
A total of 98 were suffering
from illnesses severe enough to warrant declaring them permanently unfit to drive.
Swanepoel said it was common knowledge that motor vehicle accidents in South Africa were frequently attributable to driver error.
The survey, he said, gave grave cause for concern as there were many currently employed drivers who were unfit to cope with the demands of their jobs and who represented a threat to road safety.
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