This Chuseok, Should Elderly Parents Consider Returning Their 'Jangrong License'?

Traffic Accidents Involving Elderly Drivers Increased 1.5 Times Over 5 Years
Low Voluntary Surrender Rate of Elderly Driver Licenses
Nationwide Expansion of One-Stop Voluntary Surrender Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] How about encouraging your elderly parents to voluntarily surrender their driver's licenses during the Chuseok holiday?

As South Korea enters a super-aged society, various issues have arisen in the field of traffic safety. Traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers have surged, emerging as a new social problem. Although the government is implementing a transportation cost support program for elderly drivers who voluntarily surrender their licenses, the surrender rate remains low.

According to the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Samsung Traffic Safety Culture Research Institute on the 1st, traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers in South Korea increased by about 1.5 times over five years from 2014 to 2018. The number of accidents rose from 20,275 in 2014 to 30,012 in 2018, and the number of injured increased from 29,420 in 2014 to 43,469 in 2018.

As of 2018, the number of deaths per 10,000 elderly license holders was 2.75, which is 3.6 times higher than that of people in their 30s (0.76). This indicates that not only is the accident rate high for elderly drivers as parties involved in traffic accidents, but the severity of accidents, i.e., the fatality rate, is even more serious.

However, the voluntary surrender of driver's licenses by the elderly remains at a low level.

Currently, a nationwide system to encourage voluntary surrender of driver's licenses is in place, but in 2018, the voluntary surrender rate among elderly drivers was 0.4%, which is significantly lower compared to Japan's 2.2%.

In response, the National Police Agency recently decided to expand the one-stop service for voluntary surrender of elderly drivers' licenses to 123 cities, counties, and districts nationwide.

This service completes the license surrender procedure, which used to take up to 40 days, on the day of application. Previously, to voluntarily surrender a driver's license, one had to visit a police station to write and submit a statement, receive a prior notice issued by the police station, and then receive a decision notice sent by mail from the provincial police agency.

Additionally, elderly drivers had to visit local community centers such as eup, myeon, or dong offices again to receive incentives like transportation cards or gift certificates provided by local governments after surrendering their licenses, which was inconvenient.

Going forward, administrative procedures have been simplified so that the license surrender process can be completed on the day of application, and a computerized linkage system has been established to allow license surrender and incentive applications to be done at the community center in one visit.

Goal to Reduce Traffic Accident Deaths Among Those Aged 65 and Over by More Than Half by 2023

The General Insurance Association recently held an online public hearing related to the 'Comprehensive Plan for Elderly Traffic Safety' with the National Police Agency, the Low Fertility and Aging Society Committee, and the National Assembly Traffic Safety Forum.

The comprehensive plan for the elderly was developed based on the participation and mutual cooperation of 22 public, private, and academic institutions in the Elderly Driver Safety Measures Council, which was launched last July to establish comprehensive measures for elderly traffic safety.

With the vision of a country where traffic safety is guaranteed as a basic right anytime and anywhere, the goal is to reduce traffic accident deaths among those aged 65 and over by more than half by 2023. The plan consists of three main tasks: elderly driver safety support, securing pedestrian safety for the elderly, and establishing a transportation welfare foundation for the elderly, with a total of 32 detailed tasks. To ensure responsible implementation of each detailed task, managing ministries will be designated for each task.

The National Police Agency is responsible for the elderly driver safety support area, selecting tasks such as the introduction of a conditional driver's license system and the development of driving aptitude evaluation technology to establish detailed conditions for conditional licenses. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety is in charge of securing pedestrian safety for the elderly, including managing Silver Zones and improving walking speed standards for vulnerable pedestrians in cooperation with related agencies (from 0.8m/s to 0.7m/s).

Joonhan Cho, senior researcher at the Samsung Traffic Safety Culture Research Institute, pointed out, "To increase the voluntary surrender rate of driver's licenses, it is necessary to discover various incentives beyond providing transportation cards or local gift certificates, such as discounts at local affiliated stores and free use of city buses. Securing sufficient budgets to support this is urgent." He added, "It is also necessary to ensure mobility so that elderly people do not experience inconvenience in local travel even after surrendering their driver's licenses."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.