Eye Clinic,
Medical Centre
88 Ahuza St
Ra'anana, Israel
Are You Sure You Are Safe To Drive?
Copyright All Rights Reserved 2006
Dr Andrew Fink MD of
http://www.healthylens.com for on line contact lens advice
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How safe are you on the road? And I‘m not referring to speeding or if you wear your seat belt. I am referring to the fact that you’d be amazed at how many drivers just can’t see where they are going.
Tests performed recently in the UK reveal a frightening picture. Almost 20% of drivers regularly break the law by not bothering to put on their glasses when driving, even for long journeys. 65% of those failing a routine eye test, were drivers and 1 in 3 of those knew their vision wasn’t good (but hadn’t bothered to do anything about it). The other two thirds weren’t even aware of how bad their vision was. All were at increased risk to themselves and to others on the roads.
Self assessing one's driving vision whilst driving at varying speeds in inconsistent lighting is very difficult and unreliable. Often patients say their wife/husband sees signs at least 100m before they do and on testing their vision is completely normal. Others say the opposite-they can see for miles, but on testing they have very poor vision.
Moreover good driving vision also depends on a wide field of vision, good depth perception, good accomodation (the ability to switch focus from far to near), night and colour vision-all skills we use unconsciously.
The new Israeli driving licence vision test assesses some of the above visual skills, but many go decades without being required to undertake the test. In the UK a sight test is formally recommended every 2 years up to the age of 60, and then annually. That sounds about right for Israel too.
