27-01-2017, 12:10 PM
(27-01-2017, 10:38 AM)Geordie McBoyne Wrote: So it seems you can legally drive a car even if you have vision in one eye.
Same goes for diabetes if controlled by diet only.
Correct!
Last night I filled in an on-line application to renew my licence - which expires on the eve of my 73rd birthday in April.
Naturally, I ticked the YES box in response to the question 'Can you meet the legal eyesight standard for driving?' but there is a subsidiary question 'Do you need to wear glasses or corrective lenses to meet this standard?' that I don't remember seeing before.
Having worn glasses full time since I was 14, my instinctive reaction was to tick the YES box to this question too but then changed my mind.
I have had two cataract operations in recent years and, with the new plastic lenses, no longer need glasses for distance vision. However, having needed reading glasses many years ago and finding that the right pair were never in the right place when I needed them, I rapidly switched to bifocals. Then, as the muscles weakened further, I was having difficulties with the PC, so I used to perch a pair of +1 ready readers on my nose in front of my bifocals!
When I was told that I no longer needed glasses for distance vision after the second cataract was removed, I recalled the reading glasses fiasco and thought 'Oh no!' and elected for varifocals - which, in essence, are really trifocals - so now my reading glasses, my computer glasses and my unnecessary distance glasses are always where I want them - on my nose!
So, although I always wear my glasses fro driving, I don't need to, so I ticked the NO box.
If that question was on the application I filled in three years ago I have no idea how I answered it and might well have ticked the YES box. In which case it will be interesting to see if anybody at Swansea spots the change and queries it ...
