Drive to test his sight ‘broke the Highway Code’

DOMINIC Cummings may have broken the Highway Code by driving to a beauty spot to test his eyesight, a former police chief said yesterday.

Sir Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said the journey was ‘illadvised’ and could have put others in danger.

His comments were echoed by senior police officers who warned British motorists of the risks of driving with impaired vision.

During his unprecedented press conference on Monday, Mr Cummings admitted driving his wife and fouryear-old son on a 60-mile round trip from Durham to Barnard Castle on Easter Sunday.

The Prime Minister’s chief aide had claimed that he made the trip to check whether his eyesight had recovered enough from a suspected bout of coronavirus to safely drive 260 miles back to London from his parents’ farm in Durham.

But Sir Peter said that serving officers are ‘frustrated’ by the actions of Mr Cummings and implied that it has added ‘confusion’ to the rules around acceptable reasons to travel.

He also said that the special adviser may have been sent back to London if he had been stopped by police on his drive up to Durham.

Asked about the journey to Barnard Castle, Sir Peter said: ‘It certainly appears to be against the Highway Code. It’s not the way to test your eyesight, and put potentially other people in danger.

‘It’s hard to see – unless there’s some justification that it was to take daily exercise – how that was justified.

‘There’s a lot of confusion and it feels like there’s quite a gap between the public narrative and narrative of ministers about the lockdown and what’s happening on the street.’

Asked if Mr Cummings would have been sent home if an officer had stopped him on his way to Durham, Sir Peter said: ‘I think it may well be that absolutely he’d have been turned back, as many other people were turned back from things that they were doing.’

Sir Peter told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the rules about the reasons for travel were now ‘very confused’. He added: ‘When you see the crowds on Bournemouth and Southend beaches and other places, it’s hard to see what role the police have in trying to control that.’

John Apter, the chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, tweeted: ‘Folks, I say this in all sincerity and as an important road safety issue ... if you’re feeling unwell and your eyesight may be impaired do not drive your vehicle to test your ability to drive. It’s not a wise move.’