No-specs eye check plan
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• Thousands of spectacle-wearing drivers will be forced to take eye tests without visual aids when renewing their licences under a new European law.
Because of fears that drivers could be temporarily blinded if their glasses are knocked off or contact lenses pop out in the cab, they will have to pass medical tests using uncorrected vision.
Al] drivers with impaired eyesight must be able to see at 3ft with uncorrected vision what a person with normal eyesight can see at 60ft. In effect this means reading the largest letter on an eyesight test without glasses or contact lenses.
The Freight Transport Association is playing down national press reports that thousands of drivers could lose their jobs because of the new test, saying the new law is only a slight tightening up of the existing regulations.
The new rules, which come into effect on 1 July, are likely to affect drivers with tunnel or double vision: they are part of a European move to introduce tougher eye sight standards for LGV drivers (CM 19-25 Oct 1995).
The Department of Transport says: "This is just a progression of the test that has applied to people with one eye for many years and is only slightly tightening up the rules,"