New data from the College of Optometrists has revealed that nearly half of drivers in the UK did not know it was illegal to drive without their prescribed distance spectacles or contact lenses (CLs).
The research also revealed that one in four of those surveyed had risked getting fined or banned from driving for not wearing vision correction when driving.
The main reasons people did not wear their frames or CLs when driving were revealed to be forgetting (36%), finding them uncomfortable (20%) and not wanting to admit a need to wear glasses (14%).
Paramdeep Bilkhu, clinical advisor at the College, said: ‘Optometrists will never prescribe glasses or CLs if you don’t need them, so refusing to wear them when recommended really is putting other road users at risk.’
Eyesight can also be a sensitive subject among friends, according to the research: Over a quarter (26%) of respondents said they had felt nervous in a car due to a driver's eyesight, and a fifth (21%) had needed to remind a driver to put their glasses on.