Driving: Medical Fitness

Transcript

Hello, I’m Roy Beran, I’m a Consultant Neurologist Conjoint Associate Professor at the University of South Wales, and Professor in the School of Medicine at Griffith University. I joined the Editorial Advisory Board of the Virtual Neurology Centre several years ago and today I’d like to share with you some of my ideas on driving and the law.

Talking to patients about driving and the law is very, very important because driving is an integral part of life these days, Australia has not got a wonderful transport system and we’ve got the tyranny of distance so everybody wants to drive. But driving is a privilege, it is not a right, and if you have an illness that impedes your capacity to drive then you are obliged to report it to the licensing authority because you have a responsibility to all those other drivers on the road who are at risk because of your illness.

Obviously this means you must know you’ve got an illness, so your doctor has to have diagnosed it, but if your doctor diagnoses it and tells you “you are not allowed to drive” then it is your responsibility to advise a licensing authority that you have got an illness.

What will then happened is that the licensing authority will ask your doctor to advise them if your illness is sufficiently intrusive to stop you driving and if it is what can be done to treat you to make you safe again on the road. You may be asked to go through an occupational therapist’s assessment to see if you’re still fit to drive. If you are fit to drive then there is no problem, you will redeem your license and you’ll be allowed to drive. If however you are found to be unfit to drive then you owe it not only to yourself but to every other person on the road to give them the protection that is afforded to you at the moment when other people tell the licensing authorities that they are unsafe to drive.

Remember driving is a privilege, it is not an absolute right and when you’re sitting behind the wheel you may well be holding a lethal weapon in your hands so you’ve got to do that as responsibly as possible. I know that’s not what you may want to hear but it’s a fact of life and one day it will happen to me as well when I’m told I’m not allowed to drive anymore and I’ll feel the same way you do at this moment.

With that wonderful thought, have a lovely day.

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