
Under South Korean law, driving privileges are revoked for those diagnosed with dementia, but a report Monday by a local lawmaker showed the revocation process can take as long as 10 months.
The Enforcement Decree of the Road Traffic Act states in Article 42 that those with medical conditions that impede safe driving -- such as dementia, schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder -- are not allowed to obtain a driver's license, or are subject to revocation if they already have one.
But taking away a driver's license due to such conditions takes several months, according to a report compiled by Rep. Kim Sun-min of the Rebuilding Korea Party, based on data submitted by the Korea Road Traffic Authority and the National Health Insurance Service.
When a person holding a driver's license is diagnosed with dementia requiring long-term treatment or has been admitted to a hospital for at least six months, their data is submitted to the Korea Road Traffic Authority under the National Police Agency. The person is then subject to a medical examination by an expert to evaluate their ability to drive, the results of which the person is required to submit to the authorities.
The deadline to submit the initial diagnosis is three months after the NPA's request, and a second deadline for the medical opinion comes nine months after the request. Those who wish to continue driving are then assessed monthly by a committee that evaluates their ability to do so.
Those who fail the test have their license revoked, and those given a grace period are retested a year later.
But those who refuse to submit a specialist's diagnosis at all have their license revoked a month after the final deadline, meaning 10 months after the police initially requested a medical diagnosis. This means that a person diagnosed with severe dementia can theoretically continue driving for up to 10 months.
Data shows very few of those suffering from dementia voluntarily request to have their driving ability tested. According to the road traffic authorities, only 3.2 percent (593 out of 17,973) of those asked to submit a professional opinion on their condition actually submitted one. Nine failed the government's test, 210 passed, while the rest were given the one-year grace period.
This means over 17,390 people with dementia -- whom the law deems incapable of operating a car -- have been left free to drive for 10 months before their license was taken away.
The government data showed that 5.5 percent of dementia patients submitted a medical opinion on their condition as required in 2023, 6 percent did in 2022, and 4.8 percent did in 2021.
"It's a problem that it takes 10 months to revoke the driver's license of a person found to be suffering from dementia. ... This period needs to be shorter for the safety and the lives of the public," Kim said.
Korea is one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world, last year officially becoming a super-aged society -- one in which more than 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The number of senior citizens with a driver's license went from 3.3 million in 2019 to 4.7 million in 2023, marking a surge of over 40 percent.
October data from the NPA showed that the number of accidents caused by senior drivers went from 26,713 in 2017 to 39,614 in 2023, with the number of deaths and injuries from such accidents surging from 39,475 to 56,812 in the same period.
With reports about car accidents caused by older drivers causing public concern, police have rolled out countermeasures such as mandating drivers aged 75 and above to receive examinations of their driving ability once every three years, instead of the previous five years. Drivers under the age of 65 are required to renew their licenses once every 10 years -- a process involving a simple physical examination and vision test -- while drivers aged between 65 and 74 have to do it once every five years.