C/Wwins licence battle • More than 100 truck and bus
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drivers denied vocational driving licences since April 1991 because they suffered childhood epileptic fits have won the right to work again.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority has agreed that drivers should no longer be barred from holding licences simply because they have had an attack since the age of five. Instead they will be prevented from holding a licence only if they have a "liability to epileptic seizures."
The DOT has now issued guidelines to medical assessors of licence applicants that drivers who have not had an attack or medication for epilepsy in the past 10 years should be given the all clear.
The U-turn on licences follows a campaign which Commercial Motor waged to overturn an injust interpretation of the rules governing revocations since the DVLA took on responsibility for issuing vocational licences from Traffic Commissioners almost two years ago. One driver who found himself denied a licence when he applied for renewal, 46year-old Robert Hutchins, is threatening to sue the DVLA for loss of earnings. He had not experienced an epileptic seizure for 28 years when his licence was turned down.
His employer, Dairy Products Transport, held his job open. and until he returned he found work delivering milk.
The DVLA says that drivers whose licences it revoked need not pay for another medical.