Skip to main content

Proceeding contribution from Lord Davies of Oldham (Labour) in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 22 November 2005. It occurred during Debate on bill on Road Safety Bill [HL].


Road Safety Bill [HL]

No, my Lords. I do not have anything in front of me. I know of another incident, and I can only talk anecdotally in this. I do not know of an incident with regard to cars, but I know of a football injury where the person concerned demonstrated extremely inexpert skills in putting that injury right. He got it badly wrong and was sued. He acted out of goodwill, but he did not know what he was doing and made the injury a jolly sight worse than it had been when it first occurred. I am saying that if we introduce this as a requirement of the test, we certainly would have many more people feeling that they were competent to act in these terms and we would not be assured that their competence would stand the test. Let me make the obvious point, and we discussed this with the Red Cross, some of us hold driving licences from a long way back, do we not? I do not think that the Red Cross would be very satisfied if I said to them that when I passed my test in 1961 I also passed the equivalent first-aid requirement at that time and therefore I feel myself to be entirely competent today. It would say that I was out of date after three years, not after 44 or whatever it is. There is a real problem about the question of effective first aid in these terms. I hear what the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, says about how limited the subject might be. That is not actually the nature of the representations we had from the bodies concerned. I give way, of course, to the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
675 c1608 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Death Dangerous driving Driving Disqualification Homicide Drugs Exemptions First aid Motor vehicles Police Powers Mobile phones Safety Roads Testing Road traffic offences Motor insurance
Legislation
Road Safety Bill (HL) 2005-06
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk