UK stuck in the slow lane on drivers' vision

To facilitate travelling and working across borders, the European Union has progressively harmonised the systems and standards of driver licensing in member states. As has been reported in Part 1 of the Optician Driving Series (19.11.10), recent EU directives have set about standardising the medical requirements for driving, and these have already been implemented by most member states. For professional drivers (HGV and passenger transport) these directives have successfully introduced five-yearly testing of visual acuity and visual fields as part of licence renewal.

For other categories of driver, the European representative optical bodies (ECOO, Eurom I and Euromcontact) have long suspected that the visual assessments to obtain or renew a driving licence vary substantially between countries. A report commissioned by the bodies and released this month reviews this for Group 1 (car and motorcycle) drivers' vision across 26 European countries. The findings make interesting reading for those concerned with UK road safety.