Nearly 60,000 drivers aged 75 and over were judged to possibly have dementia when renewing their licenses in the first year of stricter screening for elderly drivers, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
The revised road traffic law, which requires elderly drivers to see a doctor if dementia is suspected during a preliminary screening, took effect on March 12 last year. Fatal crashes involving senior citizens have become a major issue due to the rapid aging of the population.
The agency said in a report that 2,105,477 holders of driver's licenses took cognitive function tests in the first year of the revised law, and 57,099 of them were suspected of having dementia.