PHYSICALLY disabled persons who have been refused licences to drive based on the requirements of the Road Traffic Act Regulations of 1938 will finally be able to apply for a permit, just like their more able-bodied countrymen.

This is because amendments to the antiquated law prohibiting persons with paralysis of both feet from taking driving tests and earning the right to legally drive are far advanced.

Transport Minister Dr Omar Davies and Senator Mark Golding, minister of justice, got the ball rolling on the much-needed legislative changes after reading a front-page Sunday Observer story in February about the plight of two disabled men who had been turned away when they tried to obtain driver’s licences at the Examination Depot.

According to Golding, “This was an area crying out for reform, so that persons with physical disabilities in Jamaica are facilitated rather than held back by laws which have not kept pace with modern thinking.”

Forty-four-year-old Gausia Burchell was one of the men whose plight was highlighted in the Sunday Observer story. He was paralysed from the waist down after receiving serious injuries while working in the US.

Driven by necessity and a desire for more independence, Burchell, who lives in Garlands, St James, returned to Jamaica, bought a car and a standard kit to modify the gas and brake pedals to accommodate his disability, allowing him to control them with his arms.

It is a common practice in the US and even here in Jamaica for persons with disabilities affecting their spine and legs to have the functions normally positioned in the floor of the vehicle moved to the steering column, within arm’s reach.

But Burchell’s mission was thwarted when he was told by the chief examiner at the driver testing facility in Montego Bay that because he had a “walking disability”, the law said he could not take the test.

Another disabled man, 41-year-old Andrew East, was shot and injured in April 2000 while working as a security guard. He is paralysed from the chest down as a result. Though he uses a wheelchair, the energetic man is determined to lean on others as little as possible, despite severe financial and physical challenges.

But he, too, was denied the right to obtain a licence which would allow him to legally drive his modified motor vehicle.

Sections 18 and 20 of the Road Traffic Act describe the circumstances under which an applicant for a driver’s licence can be refused one. Applicants who have a physical disability must produce a certificate “from a registered medical practitioner, in the prescribed form, certifying that he is not suffering from any such disease or physical disability as may be specified in the form, or any other disease or physical disability which would be likely to cause the driving by him of a motor vehicle to be a source of danger to the public…,” Regulation 46 reads.

It lists these diseases and disabilities which render a person ineligible to be issued with a driver’s licence as:

* Epilepsy;

* Insanity;

* Defective vision to a degree corresponding to a standard of vision of less than 6/12 with glasses;

* Aneurysm;

* Angina pectoris;

* Diseases of the nervous system giving rise to muscular in-coordination; and

* Loss of both hands or both feet, or one hand and one foot.

However, after consultations among the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing; the Ministry of Justice; the Combined Disabilities Foundation of Jamaica; and other stakeholders such as the Island Traffic Authority, an amendment is being made to this regulation which would delete the words “both feet”.

The minister of transport, works and housing has approved the amendments which will come in force as soon as they have been signed and gazetted, possibly within weeks.

This is welcome news for president of the Combined Disabilities Association, Gloria Goffe.

“The community is really happy about the move in that the amendment to the act will allow persons, some of whom are already driving modified vehicles — unaware of the regulation — to get their licences,” Goffe said.

She credited both ministries for the speed at which the changes are being effected, following the association’s letters and meetings with the Government, but is anxious that the promises made to the disabled community not be forgotten.

“We are happy but reserved until it actually happens. It has really not been a protracted process at all, and we are looking forward to the amendments being gazetted. All we are asking is that they not be cast aside before they are finalised,” Goffe said.

Gausia Burchell, whose plight was highlighted in a Sunday Observer story in February, stands beside his specially modified car. Paralysed from the waist down after receiving serious injuries while working in the US, Burchell was denied a driver’s licence by the chief examiner at the examination depot in Montego Bay because, the examiner said, he has a “walking disability”.