Ivory Coast suspends driving test staff to tackle corruption

Lots of similarities with how licenses are obtained in India. India needs something drastic like this to happen in order to improve road safety.

BHPian deepakc recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Ivory Coast suspends all driving test staff as road deaths rise.

Lots of similarities with how licenses are obtained in India. India needs something drastic like this to happen in order to improve road safety.

Police officers will take over and officiate driving tests for a period of three months from next week, announced Transport Minister Amadou Koné.

He said the country enjoys "better quality roads" after recent investment but said human error was behind many of the latest accidents.

Source: BBC

Here's what BHPian gkveda had to say on the matter:

Very brave thought. Very much required for India too.

But, given our on-road behaviour of drivers, I think, passing driving test with or without corruption is not the root cause of majority of the accidents in India.

Reason being, anyone who is behind wheels picks up driving skills to a fairly decent level if he or she drives for, say, few thousand kms. So, whether he or she has bribed the official to get DL is not of critical importance after the person drives few thousand km.

The majority of the accidents happen today are NOT because of new drivers who have learnt driving recently. It is the experts or people who think they are experts who are major contributors to accidents.

And It is the below attitude in those experts (or perceived expertise) that causes most of the accidents:

• I am a faster driver than others
• I can control the vehicle better than others
• My vehicle is more powerful than others. Hence, others should give way to me.
• I have the right to use the road the way I want and others have to oblige.
• I am the most important person on the road.

If all these attitudes can be changed to exactly opposite of what is written above through some law and implementation, then 90% of the accidents can be avoided.

Here's what BHPian svsantosh had to say on the matter:

10 years ago, my wife got her car DL under the following circumstances:

• She was in the driver's seat of the driving school's Maruti 800.
• The school owner was in the passenger seat.
• He was in possession of that day's applications.
• All his students passed, duh.
• The mandatory 10% fail were smart rears who were walkins into the RTO without a school to back them up.
• She must have assumed she was on her Honda Dio, because only the right two wheels were on the tarmac, left two wheels were 1-2 feet on the dirt track beside the road. Half the car was on the road basically!

I was following them from a safe distance on my bike and was a mute witness to that excuse of the driving test!

She got her licence!

PS - She drives better than me today. But I still do not understand how a civilian can recommend the RTO inspector who is fit and who isn't.

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