DIABETIC'S DRIVING LICENCE RESTORED
Page 34
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ADIABETIC, Mr. Laurence Howey, 41, van driver and food salesman, of Newcastle upon Tyne, whose driving licence, unblemished for 24 years, was revoked by Newcastle licensing authority because it was considered dangerous for him to drive, had it restored to him by Newcastle magistrates last Friday.
Mr. Howey appealed under the Road Traffic Act, 1960, and described an insulin coma at Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, which led to the revocation. He said: "I was in a shop when I found that I could not find the words to describe
what I meant to say—I was talking daft.
I knew that I was having an attack, and went to my van to get some sugar to take and they found me slumped over the wheel. I always carry sugar about with me."
Mr. T. H. Campbell Wardlaw, for Mr. Howey, said that Bishop Auckland magistrates subsequently dismissed a charge of being so under the influence of drugs as
A32
to be incapable of having proper control, but referred the matter to the Newcastle authority. After Mr. Howey's own doctor had stated that he did not think Mr. Howey was fit to drive, the authority revoked his driving licence.
Dr. George 0. Richardson, consultant physician in charge of the diabetic clinic at Newcastle General Hospital, said that Mr. Howey's dosage of insulin had now been stabilized, and he was of the opinion that he was fit to drive, "A patient invariably gets some warning that an attack is developing, and there is ample time to take proper action. If just occasionally a person fails to take action, they just cannot do anything at all. I have something like 4,000 patients at my clinic, and the majority of them drive." Dr. Richardson added that he had known only three other cases like this, and in each case the patient involved had driven his car to the side of the road and stopped it.