Fitness to drive: Serious injury lawyer welcomes latest driving standards proposals
All road users share responsibility for safety on our roads. The 2022 revision of the Highway Code established a hierarchy of road users, prioritising the safety of more vulnerable road users by placing greatest responsibility on those who can cause the greatest harm.
Despite this, as a serious injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, I'm disappointed to see the statistics reveal little has changed - in 2024 we saw 29,537 people killed or seriously injured on Great Britain’s roads.
I therefore welcome the government’s plans to deliver the first road safety strategy in more than a decade. Across the country, every day lives are shattered by crashes on our roads that could have been avoided.
Proposals include increased eye testing for drivers over 70
Alongside plans to reduce the drink-driving limit in both England and Wales to align with Scotland, and to introduce saliva tests for drug-drivers, one proposal is to introduce mandatory eye tests for drivers over 70 when they renew their license every three years.
As noted by Edmund King, president of the AA: “When you look at road deaths the big peaks are with young, new drivers and then older drivers - although older drivers it does tend to be those over 80 and 85.”
There is already legislation in force governing eye sight standards. Section 96 of the Road Traffic Act gives the police the power to require a driver to submit to an eye sight test if they reasonably suspect that driver to be driving with uncorrected defective eyesight. Failure to submit to that test is an offence. Drivers therefore already have a responsibility to ensure that their eyesight is up to standard, but this relies entirely on self-reporting.
Does more need to be done?
As a serious injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, I often represent people after incidents involving elderly drivers who have caused collisions with catastrophic consequences, killing or seriously injuring people – especially vulnerable road users, such as cyclists. These elderly drivers often voluntarily give up their licenses after such incidents. That is simply too little, too late.
It is, however, unclear whether mandatory eye tests would have many any difference in these instances, as fitness to drive is also affected by wider cognitive and physical abilities – not just your vision.
Further, many of our cases involve younger drivers too. Whilst their vision may have been a contributory factor, so too could their inexperience and therefore the need to consider other measures such as the Graduated Driving License, together with mandatory eye tests.
Conclusion
This is why a new road safety strategy is required, recognising that we all share responsibility for safety on our roads; much more needs to be done to reduce the devastation caused by crashes on Britain’s roads.
Find out more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in supporting people and families affected by collisions on our roads at our dedicated road traffic accidents section.
