Daily Mail

Drivers who won’t wear their specs

- By Tom Payne Transport Correspond­ent

DRIVERS with poor vision are routinely breaking the law by refusing to wear glasses or contact lenses at the wheel, warn experts.

A poll of optometris­ts found nearly half – 44 per cent – of patients are recklessly taking to the road despite failing to meet legal vision standards.

The findings come as millions prepare to take to the roads for the festive getaway. Drivers can have their licence revoked if they cannot read a number plate from 20 metres away but it is up to them to report themselves to the DVLA.

A small number are snared by police in roadside vision tests, with 206 being caught this way between January and September, according to insurers Direct Line which carried out the survey.

But optometris­ts are calling for tougher enforcemen­t amid fears that around one million people could be driving illegally.

Poor eyesight was a direct cause in almost 300 serious collisions in the past five years, many of them fatal, according to figures.

Some 81 per cent in the survey support compulsory annual eye tests for all drivers, whether or not they have a condition.

The most common reasons for needing glasses are poor diet and nutritiona­l deficienci­es, stress and deteriorat­ion due to age. The eye conditions most commonly ignored by drivers are diabetic retinopath­y (36 per cent), glaucoma (23 per cent) and myopia (17 per cent).

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