Echoes of the Past: Drivers' vision in the news

This week’s Echoes of the past retrospective looks back to 1964 and the July 24 edition of Optician. Around the time the issue went to press, former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill retired from the House of Commons at the age of 89 and Judith Graham Pool published her discovery of cryoprecipitate, a frozen blood clotting product made from plasma in the treatment of haemophilia

Drivers’ vision was very much in the optical news at the time, with three particularly worrying reports.

The results of a practitioner-led screening study on motorcyclists at a side-car club meeting found that 10 out of 14 volunteers had to be referred for an ophthalmic examination. Two struggled to pass a number-plate test with both eyes and one was found to be monocular.