As a diabetic, eye health is something that is really important to me. Type 2 diabetes can have a detrimental effect on eye health and eyesight, which means that getting regular eye tests is not only vital to keeping my eyes in tip-tip condition but is also a requirement of me, as a driver. Vision Express has teamed up with Road Haulage Association (RHA) and road safety charity, Brake for Road Safety Week and have come up with the ‘EyeTestsSaveLives’ campaign to raise awareness of the fact that that 1 in 4 drivers are risking their licence by not going for regular eye tests. Take a look at the following video:
Now that we’ve moved out of town, I spend a LOT more time on the road, doing two 40-minute school runs each day, as well as taking Husband to the gym, Sausage to St. Johns Ambulance and all of the other various errands that I run in a week. It’s genuinely scary to think that there are other drivers on the road who cannot see well enough to remain safe. A lot of the roads around our village are completely unlit, which makes it even more dangerous if a drivers’ vision is impaired.
According to the research done by Brake:
· Five million drivers (14%) acknowledge driving with less than perfect vision
· Crash risk is proven to be heightened by poor vision
· Road crashes caused by poor driver vision are estimated to cause 2,900 casualties and cost £33 million in the UK per year
· One in five drivers has avoided visiting an optician, even when they’ve noticed a problem with their vision
· One in eight admitted to driving without their glasses or lenses in the past 12 months
The research also states that 4% – the equivalent of more than 1.5 million UK drivers, have confessed to never having their eyes tested.
What’s your opinion on all of this? Are you fastidious about your vision and eye health or are you one of the people who’ve avoided an eye test for years? Do you find it startling how many people there are on the roads who can’t see properly? Leave me a comment below to let me know.
