MINSK, 22 April (BelTA) – In Belarus, approaches to driver training in driving schools need to be tightened, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said during his visit to the Minsk DOSAAF Aero Club at the Lipki airfield on 22 April, BelTA has learned.
One of DOSAAF’s activities is training drivers of various categories (about 45,000 a year), which generates good revenue. Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that he himself had once trained at a DOSAAF driving school.
The president noted that the quality of future driver training must be strengthened, as this is first and foremost a matter of road safety: “Driver training needs to be toughened. These days, just about anyone is driving a car.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that he is in favor of giving everyone who wants it, both men and women, the opportunity to take driver training at a driving school. However, to become a driver, one needs not only specialized skills but also certain innate qualities: attentiveness, composure, and so on.
The president stressed that certain measures should be taken not to cut people off or weed out as many as possible, but rather with a focus on the quality of training and the assessment of driving skills.
“We realize that, Aleksandr Grigoryevich [Lukashenko]. And what’s been happening on the roads lately… We’re implementing a joint project with the traffic police and the Transport and Communications Ministry. A special commission is working to come up with a set of measures to increase safety on our roads,” Andrei Nekrashevich, Chairman of the Central Board of DOSAAF, said. “Our role and contribution is to improve the quality of training. We’re not waiting for orders from above.”
“You have everything you need to do that,” the head of state said.
“So that we train worthy drivers who can get out on the roads in a car,” the head of state said. “No matter how offended they might be at me today when they hear this speech. They will thank me later, because they will stay alive.”
