Red eye warning
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rivers have been given unusual safety advice to test their eyes this summer — a Swindon-based doctor advises watching lots of tennis and cricket on television.
Drivers who can follow a yellow tennis ball being slammed on to a green court but have difficulty seeing a red cricket ball in flight may be suffering from "red blindness", which could result in a fatal accident at traffic lights.
Dr Anthony Freeman of the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, says red should be replaced by another colour to signal danger because the condition is so common. He believes it could be responsible for recent rail accidents in which drivers unaccountably drove through red lights. "Red blindness" is most prevalent in middle-aged men who smoke, because it is linked to the small amounts of cyanide in tobacco smoke.