A week of news - mobility scooters and vision

Mobility scooters are high up the news agenda in Optician this week.

Guidance has been released urging users to have their eyes examined regularly, with mandatory testing to be explored by the DfT.

And so the vision of mobility scooter drivers breezing along at 8mph or less is officially more urgent than that of droves steaming along our motorways morning, noon and night.

This conclusion can be drawn from the fact that the latest DfT and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) consultation on eyesight standards for car, motorcycle, bus and lorry drivers remains locked – a year after proposals to make the number plate test easier were made.

With so much talk of public health outcomes and reducing the burden on secondary care at the moment it would be a strange move to make regulations less stringent, which will surely result in further avoidable accidents.

A status quo is likely when the announcement eventually comes, meaning the increased footfall that compulsory driver eye tests would bring is, unlike the number plate test, somewhere in the distance.

On the other hand, it might be worth clearly marking out a new parking bay at the front – for mobility scooters only.