| Eyesight Tests Being Overlooked! |
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Yes, eyesight tests are being overlookes as drivers blindly take to the road, in fact almost half of company car drivers (45.6%) on UK roads have not had an eyesight test in the last 3 years, and nearly 30% (29.4%) have not had their sight tested in the past 5 years, or at all. These are the facts which come as a result of analysis conducted by online driver assessment and e-driver training specialist E-Training World which examined data from 340 drivers from some of the UK’s biggest fleet operators who have recently completed an online risk assessment. And even though eyesight tests are recommended annually, and many company car policies stipulate a yearly examination, only a quarter of drivers surveyed had had an eyesight test within the last 12 months. Many drivers take a very relaxed approach towards their eyesight and think that just because they can see means they can see well enough to be safe on the road. “However, to quote the law it is a legal requirement that you must be able to read a standard size number plate (with glasses or corrective lenses if necessary) from 20.5 metres (67 feet) or 20 metres (65 feet) where narrower characters (50mm) wide are displayed.” Of course any person driving on a public highway who is unable to do this is guilty of an offence. When it comes to crashes there is no real statistical evidence which backs up the fact that just because the person cannot read a number plate that this caused the crash! In fact practitioners have never really been able to prove conclusively that there is a major problem with defective vision and crashes despite a number of studies. This does not mean that drivers should not have their sight tested on a regular basis as there are other issues which are of greater concerned with eyesight than the ability just to read a number plate at the required distance. However these areas are rarely looked at in a standard eye test. Comment by .....Graham Feest Acknowledgement to AIRSO |
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