고령자 운전규제에 관한 법적 고찰 - 운전면허제도를 중심으로

Abstract

The issues of elderly drivers in aging societies are growing as an area of interest not only in South Korea but also internationally. However, the current 「Road Traffic Act」, including 「Passenger Transport Service Act」 and 「Trucking Transport Business Act」 regarding company vehicle laws, do not have a legislative system that allows for the early recognition and prevention of accidents due to elderly drivers’ abilities. As many elderly drivers are behind the wheel without adequate testing of their physical and mental capacity to drive, it is crucial to review the drivers’ license system to solve the issues of elderly drivers before the expected increase in elderly driver’s problems with the aging of the baby boomer generation. It is important to carefully approach the issue of modifying driving restrictions on elderly drivers. The need for caution in approaching the issues of elderly drivers comes from the various aspects of the problem. While there is a need to maintain and strengthen driving restrictions of elderly drivers to secure road traffic safety, on the other hand, the restriction of elderly drivers may prevent the freedom of movement amongst the aging population and thus bring about issues regarding aging population problems. This research distinctly clarifies that as strong driving restrictions are not placed on the elderly as a direct response to their age, driving restrictions on elderly drivers should not only maintain a fundamental perspective of restricting high-risk drivers but also aim to establish rational restrictive criteria based on the age of the elderly driver. Through this approach, it can be consider socially acceptable. This paper aims to draw legislative measures for future modifications of driving restrictions on elderly drivers through reviewing and establishing the problems with current legislations and legal implementations of driving restrictions on the elderly. Research includes discussions on, the constitutional legitimacy of applying stronger restrictions on elderly drivers as compared to general drivers, and methods of restrictions and how the settings of restrictions should be established for elder drivers in the future. In addition, examples of legislation in other countries have been reviewed and proposals for methods of legislative improvement for the modification of elderly driver’s driving license system are given.