Joint statement on driving vision standards

Representative and professional bodies across the UK have issued a joint statement supporting the call for safer driving vision standards.

Signed by ABDO, FODO (the Association for Eyecare Providers), Optometry Northern Ireland, Optometry Scotland and Optometry Wales, the statement welcomes and endorses the recent statement from the Association of Optometrists and the College of Optometrists calling for stronger vision standards for drivers.

The sector is calling for a number of changes as the government prepares to publish a new road safety strategy this autumn.

These include:

• Mandatory evidence that a driver meets the legal vision standard at provisional licence application and subsequent renewals
• A system designed with optometrists and dispensing opticians, the frontline experts in testing sight, correcting vision, and detecting eye disease
• Ensuring that public protection is based on professional assessments of drivers’ vision carried out appropriately and fairly by registered optometrists and dispensing opticians in the community
• Public communications to raise awareness especially among high-risk groups and to remind drivers of the importance of good vision “which can make the difference between life and death on the roads”

The statement also lays out how community optometry can help, through providing vision checks and regular eye examinations to detect correctable vision issues and serious eye disease.

Read the statement in full.