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There are calls for the current UK sight tests for drivers to be discontinued and replaced with a much more thorough examination of the potential road users eye sight. The insurance firm Royal Sun Alliance believe that the current procedures are inadequate and require immediate attention.
Currently, potential drivers are tested via the Number Plate Test to discern a persons ability to read and assess conditions and signs from a set distance. Once completed to a satisfactory level, the driver is then not tested again unless an eye care specialist recommends that they are unsafe to drive during an examination.
The proposals put forward recommend that eye tests should be compulsory every 10 years by a qualified, professional optician, to assess the drivers ability to drive safely on the nations roads. The insurance firm commissioned research to be undertaken to assess a drivers ability to drive in numerous visually impaired situations. The test was designed to examine a drivers performance when directly linked to their visual abilities. The results found were:
- Blurred vision
Decrease in ability to read road signs, judge distances between vehicles and distances between vehicle and lanes/roadsides - Distance driving
Due to visual impairments it was noted that the brain had to work harder when driving, with this workload causing problems on medium to long journey times
Although it is obvious to say that our eyes deteriorate over time and that a 50 year old's vision is not what it once was when they were 17, current guidelines do not take this factor into consideration.
Tyre by Petr Kratochvil (Image)