Driving Sight Failiure!

wongataa

mad_spaniel wrote: »

I had an eye test yesterday with vision express. 2 years ago with Specsavers. I was told my long distance had improved now and I no longer needed to wear glasses when driving. I queried this and was told that sometimes sight improved. I only expected it to get worse with age, so news to me.

People tend get longer sighted as they age. If you were a bit short sighted then this increasing long sightedness could have cancelled out the short sightedness. Of course your eyesight could keep slowly changing and require you to have glasses again in the future when driving.

Dr_Crypto

This reminds me of when I used to do occasional ACU Medicals for amateur motorcycle racers. I tested one old boy and his sight was absolutely awful - well below the ACU standard. He had had glaucoma and of course they had badly damaged his eye. He got very angry when I said his sight wouldn’t pass and he wouldn’t been given any licence.  It wasn’t my fault - I just did the test! 

James1968

I remember my driving test eye test. It was with the head examiner.
First we went outside to read a number plate, but as it was an Irish one he stopped me and we moved to a position to read the plate on a motorbike. Just as he finished asking me to read it, the rider got on it and rode off on his test.
Not to be out-done, the examiner got out a tape measure an we headed to the leisure centre carpark nextdoor.

At the time, my prescription was -11.5. Since then i have had cataract surgery and my distance vision is -0.5 which is on the limits of lense tolerance, so have been advised by 2 high street opticians that glasses may actually worsen my sight as i more than meet the sight requirements without them.

Skippy13

Car_54 said:

mad_spaniel wrote: »

I had an eye test yesterday with vision express. 2 years ago with Specsavers. I was told my long distance had improved now and I no longer needed to wear glasses when driving. I queried this and was told that sometimes sight improved. I only expected it to get worse with age, so news to me.

You should contact the DVLA and get the code removed from your licence, to save you any future inconvenience.

What code?  I've worn glasses/contact lenses since before I learned to drive but there's nothing about it on my licence.

Car_54

Skippy13 said:

Car_54 said:

mad_spaniel wrote: »

I had an eye test yesterday with vision express. 2 years ago with Specsavers. I was told my long distance had improved now and I no longer needed to wear glasses when driving. I queried this and was told that sometimes sight improved. I only expected it to get worse with age, so news to me.

You should contact the DVLA and get the code removed from your licence, to save you any future inconvenience.

What code?  I've worn glasses/contact lenses since before I learned to drive but there's nothing about it on my licence.

Is there an ‘01’ in column 12 on the back of your licence?

Silvertabby

Car_54 said:

Skippy13 said:

Car_54 said:

mad_spaniel wrote: »

I had an eye test yesterday with vision express. 2 years ago with Specsavers. I was told my long distance had improved now and I no longer needed to wear glasses when driving. I queried this and was told that sometimes sight improved. I only expected it to get worse with age, so news to me.

You should contact the DVLA and get the code removed from your licence, to save you any future inconvenience.

What code?  I've worn glasses/contact lenses since before I learned to drive but there's nothing about it on my licence.

Is there an ‘01’ in column 12 on the back of your licence?

Mr S has a new photo card driving licence, which is coded to say that he must wear glasses, whereas my paper licence makes no mention of sight correction.  Before anyone chirps up, my paper licence is still perfectly valid - until I reach the age of 70 or move house. 

Skippy13

Car_54 said:

Skippy13 said:

Car_54 said:

mad_spaniel wrote: »

I had an eye test yesterday with vision express. 2 years ago with Specsavers. I was told my long distance had improved now and I no longer needed to wear glasses when driving. I queried this and was told that sometimes sight improved. I only expected it to get worse with age, so news to me.

You should contact the DVLA and get the code removed from your licence, to save you any future inconvenience.

What code?  I've worn glasses/contact lenses since before I learned to drive but there's nothing about it on my licence.

Is there an ‘01’ in column 12 on the back of your licence?

No, I've never declared wearing glasses/lenses as you don't have to:

'You must tell DVLA if you’ve got any problem with your eyesight that affects both of your eyes, or the remaining eye if you only have one eye.

This doesn’t include being short or long sighted or colour blind. You also don’t need to say if you’ve had surgery to correct short sightedness and can meet the eyesight standards.'

AdrianC

Skippy13 said:

Car_54 said:

Is there an ‘01’ in column 12 on the back of your licence?

No, I've never declared wearing glasses/lenses as you don't have to:

I have 01 on my licence. I never declared wearing glasses to DVLA.

But I did wear them on my test...

Skippy13

I was probably wearing contact lenses rather than glasses and so no one would have known if they didn't ask!