Are you fit to drive?

Most people regard being able to drive as a very important part of life, whether it’s travelling to work, shopping, fetching children from school, socialising or simply as part of everyday life.

However, there are many medical conditions that can impair your ability to drive safely and mean you’re not fit to drive. With more than 1,300 Australians dying on our roads and over 32,000 sustaining serious injuries every year, driver health is an important concern.

While you may have been driving for some time and consider yourself a good driver, it’s more complex than you think. Driving entails a host of cognitive skills abilities. These include perception, good judgement, insight, decision making, memory, coordination and responsiveness. Moreover, when you drive, you don’t only need reasonable physical capability to operate the vehicle, but also good vision and hearing to monitor and react to the external environment around you.

While there are many medical conditions that may affect driving and different types of car licences, this article will only focus on long-term neurological conditions and neuromuscular disorders as they relate to private drivers that hold a class C (car), R and R-Date (motorcycle) or LR (light rigid) licence.

What is fitness to drive?
Determining your fitness to drive safely focuses on achieving a balance between:
• Minimising any driving-related road safety risks for individuals and the community that a driver’s permanent or long-term injury or illness may pose.
• Maintaining a driver’s lifestyle- and employment-related mobility independence.

All health professionals and driver-licensing authorities in Australia use the national guidelines (Assessing Fitness to Drive for Commercial and Private Vehicle Drivers) to confirm that drivers meet specified medical standards and are fit to drive.

Legal responsibilities
Regardless of your age, if you’re a licensed driver, you’re required by law to advise your driver-licensing authority of any permanent or long-term illness that’s likely to impair your ability to drive safely. For this reason, all states and territories in Australia have public-safety laws about reporting any permanent or long-term medical condition that might affect driving fitness.

Medical conditions that affect driving
Apart from a host of medical conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, vision problems and sleep disorders, there are also several neurological conditions that affect your driving ability. Neurological disorders can impair any of the capacities needed in driving but can also produce seizures, which would endanger you and others.

Let’s look at some of these conditions:

Dementia affects more than 250,000 Australians. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for between 50-70%. Since dementia often results in irreversible loss of mental functioning, it goes without saying that it will affect someone’s ability to drive safely.

Various progressive neurological and neuromuscular disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis may cause your attention to lapse or result in you being unable to control the vehicle effectively. This could have a disastrous effect on you, passengers or other road users.

How your fitness to drive is assessed
The first step if you have a medical condition and are uncertain how it may affect your fitness to drive, is to be honest with yourself by making an appointment to discuss the issue with your doctor.

Remember to take any corrective spectacles and the names of medications you’re currently taking along with you.

Your doctor will assess your eyesight as well as your general and medical health. If you have a particular medical condition that may affect your ability to drive safely, your doctor will advise you and discuss how to manage it.

In some cases, conditions such as a brain aneurism or stroke may make an assessment more difficult, so your doctor may refer you to a specialist to do further assessments and complete the Certificate of Fitness. You will need to cover these medical expenses yourself.

Your medical condition and doctor’s recommendations will determine how your licence or permit is affected. You may also need to undergo a practical driving assessment to evaluate the impact of your illness or condition on various driving skills, e.g. vehicle handling, observation, judgement and decision making. It’s not the same as a competency driving test that driver-licensing authorities routinely do for licensing purposes.

Don’t be disheartened if you have a medical condition – it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to drive at all. Some restrictions may be placed on your driving, your vehicle might be modified if you have a musculoskeletal disorder, or you might need to see your doctor more frequently to check that your condition is being managed effectively.

Tips:
 • Always be truthful when answering your doctor’s questions about your health status and whether it may impact on your driving ability.
• Adhere to prescribed medical treatment.
• If you have a conditional or restricted driver’s licence, be sure to comply with the requirements, including having periodic medical check-ups, if you’re required to do so. Failing to do so could result in fines, legal prosecution and loss of insurance.
• Remember that your doctor doesn’t make up the rules regarding driving and health. These are developed by medical experts. The national Fitness to Drive Guidelines are approved and regularly updated by driver-licensing authorities who always make the final decision about a person’s licence status.

Sources:
1. For a copy of the most recent driving fitness guidelines visit the Austroads website: http://www.austroads.com.au/assessing-fitness-to-drive or contact the driver licensing authority in your state or territory.
2. Dept of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, Government of South Australia: Information Sheet 2: ‘Fitness to drive: Movingrightalong’ (for older drivers)
3. http://www.transport.tas.gov.au/licence_information/assessing_fitness_to_drive
4. http://www.dpti.sa.gov.au/roadsafety/safe_road_users/fitness_to_drive
5. www.mylicence.sa.gov.au/fitnesstodrive 6. http://www.murraymalleetransport.com.au/pages/older-drivers/fitness-to-drive.php