A friend was knocked off his motorcycle by a blind driver. I am not joking; he was driving a car and pulled across my mate’s path. This knocked him off his bike, and when the police turned up, they did an eyesight test on the driver. He couldn’t see further than four metres in front of his face! This is terrible! How are these people allowed to drive?

Answer

I am seeing this a lot more now. I know we have an ageing population. As we age, our body deteriorates, and it is common for the police to conduct eyesight tests at the roadside. If they do this, it must be conducted in daylight. The law is quite simple on this: if you need corrected vision to drive, you must wear your glasses or contact lenses. If you don’t, you commit the offence of driving otherwise in accordance with a licence; the key part being that the licence was only issued on the basis you had corrected vision.

You must be able to read a numberplate from 20 metres away. If you cannot, then the police have the power to now ask for a revocation of the licence under Cassie’s Law. For those who do not know, Cassie Mccord died from injuries sustained when car driver Colin Horsfall lost control of his car in Colchester, Essex.

She was 16 years old at the time of her death, and it later transpired that Horsfall had been told by Essex Police not to drive after he was involved in a minor collision and subsequently failed a sight test. He continued to drive, however, and at the time police had no powers to immediately suspend his licence.

I was speaking to a roads policing officer recently who told me that DVLA have an online portal. If a driver fails the eyesight test, the police immediately access the portal and report the driver. He told me they revoke a licence within a few hours. This is obviously gooo news, but it does mean this is a bigger problem than we realise.

Now it’s darker in the evenings, I constantly get stuck behind drivers travelling at 30mph in a national speed limit. I wonder to myself, ‘is this driver blind?’ – to which the answer may well be yes. The truth is, as we are required to self-certify, some drivers either don’t know or don’t want to lose their licence, so continue to drive even when they know their vision is impaired.

Turning to your mate’s case, as the car driver pulled across his path, he is going to win 100%. It is obvious to point to the negligence of the car driver; he pulled out when your mate was there to be seen! It is just another nail in the car driver’s coffin that he has committed further offences by driving with impaired vision.

There is no power for us members of the public to report other drivers for being blind bats and it results in a revocation. You can still report it, but it will mean the police will need to follow it up and pass it onto the DVLA. With the police forces being stretched, especially roads policing units, I am not totally convinced it is going to result in any sensible action, unfortunately, until the worst happens. Stay safe out there.

Gavin Grewal

Fast Bikes Mag – February 2025