European Parliament Recommends Compulsory 10 Year Eye Tests For Drivers

european parliament calls for eye tests every 10 years

Following the Royal Sun Alliance's call for stricter and more rigorous testing of drivers eye sight, the European Parliament has put forward new recommendations regarding drivers eye sight requirements, the testing of motorists vision and the continuation of this after the initial driving testing procedure.

The insurance firm have already discussed, following investigations of their own, the need for a more appropriate vision test for motorists during their driving life, including retesting over a number of years due to the simple fact that anyone and everyone, not just drivers, face their eye sight deteriorating during their lifespan, be it a slow decline or rapid. Even slight blurring of a motorists vision can see marked changes in response times, something that will affect all drivers as time progresses to some degree.

The new document, Own Initiative, calls for a mandatory 10 year testing procedure for drivers to keep their license, in a bid to drastically lower the thousands of deaths on EU roads each year, many of which the European Parliament believe could be vision deterioration related. With vision declining at a faster rate as you age, the directive also calls for tests to be conducted every 5 years for drivers over the age of 65. The clear objective of this proposal is not necessarily to remove drivers with poorer eyesight from the road, but to detect problems and issues they might have with their vision, often innocently unnoticed, and have the condition treated so that the motorist can continue to drive on Europe's roads safely for themselves, as well as those around them.

Car In Crosswalk by Peter Griffin (Image)