Crackdown: licences immediately revoked if a driver fails a roadside sight test

[Tangled Metal]

+1
As a race we are not as enlightened as we should be. One day we. Might wake up and grow up as a species one day.

[mjr]

RNIB commissioned survey in 2016 found 27% of adults hadn't had an eye test in the previous 2 years (link PDF).

That's a surprisingly low number IMHO

Yes, you do have to wonder whether people are answering honestly. It is in line with similar survey results, though.

One more worrying survey finding is that 12% of adults have not had an eye test since childhood - that may mean about 1 in 8 drivers has only passed the weak eye test in the driving test and possibly some time ago!

[mjr]

50% of motorists don't know how good their eyesight must be to drive.

[thirdcrank]

Going back to the policy initiative which prompted this - but without bothering to dig it out - IIRC the suggestion was that the police in certain forces would test every driver they stopped. As I posted, the police have had a power to test drivers' eyesight since before I can remember, and here it is. To help anybody without 20/20 vision to spot the loophole, here's the relevant legislation highlighted

96 Driving with uncorrected eyesight

(1) If a person drives a motor vehicle on a road while his eyesight is such (whether through a defect which cannot be or one which is not for the time being sufficiently corrected) that he cannot comply with any requirement as to eyesight prescribed under this Part of this Act for the purposes of tests of competence to drive, he is guilty of an offence.

(2) A constable having reason to suspect that a person driving a motor vehicle may be guilty of an offence under subsection (1) above may require him to submit to a test for the purpose of ascertaining whether, using no other means of correction than he used at the time of driving, he can comply with the requirement concerned.

(3) If that person refuses to submit to the test he is guilty of an offence.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/96

I take that to mean there's no power to conduct random tests.

[[XAP]Bob]

I have reason - many people clearly can’t do it... you are a person, therefore...

[ambodach]

I have no idea what the situation is in England but in Scotland I get a free eye test every year. Of course I take it as only sensible tho’ I do have to pay for any lenses of any kind. I did get 2 cataract ops. free so I know my sight is ok now without specs. I had an infection ( blepharitis ) which was also promptly dealt with by NHS optician.

[Tangled Metal]

I get free eye tests on the nhs in England. I have one eye classed as requiring a complex lens so I can get free eye tests anywhere in the UK. Used to have two eyes that matched this criteria but one eye's reading got better a year after both eyes became complex prescription. I get financial help from the NHS for that lens too. About £13 iirc. I do appreciate the help since it usually costs me about £300 just for the lenses to get good lenses that aren't too thick. If I got standard lenses the thickness distorts the vision a bit