NOWA ZELANDIA  - c i e k a w o s t k i

           1 0 0 - l e t n i   k i e r o w c a                                                            data ostatniej aktualizacji:  17 sierpnia  2001
 

              A Timaru man who started driving during the First World
                War has become the oldest known person to pass a
                driver's test - just two days before his 100th birthday. 

                Eric Bailey-Balfour renewed his licence on Tuesday, and
                celebrates his birthday today. He learned to drive in his
                father's Sunbeam when aged 16 and living in Leeds,
                England. 

                Mr Bailey-Balfour swept through the "simple" driving test,
                which involved parking, u-turns and roundabouts. 

                Nor was eyesight a problem. Mr Bailey-Balfour said he
                had been wearing glasses since he was a child, but his
                optometrist was staggered that his eyesight had
                deteriorated no further. 

                Mr Bailey-Balfour needs the licence for his daily 8km
                drives to Timaru. He has driven dozens of cars in the
                past 84 years, but rates his present car as the best. The
                1985 Toyota Corona import runs like a dream. 

                But his family will no longer let him drive long distances,
                such as to Christchurch. 

                "I shall keep on driving," Mr Bailey-Balfour said
                yesterday. "We'll see what happens in two years' time." 

                Drivers have to renew their licences every two years once
                they are over 80.

New Zealand Herald 19.07.2001 By SCOTT MacLEOD