Driving a vehicle requires all of your senses, and as you can imagine, your eyesight is the most important. When driving a vehicle, you should be able to see other road users, pedestrians and possible hazards within a reasonable distance. If you wear glasses, then you must inform the DVLA so that they are aware that while you are learning to drive, taking your test and driving after you have passed your practical, you should either be wearing glasses or contact lenses. To ensure that the roads are safe, you will need to meet the legal eyesight standard for driving, of which you will be tested on when taking your driving test.
Legal Eyesight Standard for Driving
Many of our students taking driving lessons in Milton Keynes and the surrounding areas are often confused about what the rules are when it comes to driving with poor eyesight. We would always recommend that if you struggle to see, whether it be short or long distance, that you get your eyes tested before getting behind the wheel. It is extremely important that you maintain safe driving, and being able to see whether a pedestrian is crossing the road ahead can mean the difference between a safe stop and potentially serious, life-threatening injuries. To help you understand more about what the legal eyesight standard is for driving, we have come up with everything you need to consider before booking in your driving lessons in Bagshot and other areas around the UK.
Reading Number Plates
One of the easiest ways to know if your eyesight will cause you trouble is to read a number plate from a minimum of two to three car lengths away. If the letters and numbers are slightly blurry, then it is most definitely time to go to the opticians, as this can cause problems with identifying hazards further in the distance.
During your practical driving test, you will be examined for your eyesight before being taken out on the roads. Your examiner will make you stand approximately 20.5 metres (5 car lengths) away from a parked vehicle; they will then ask you to read out the number plate, of which you should be able to do so with ease. If you struggle to see the number plate or need to squint when doing so, then the examiner can refuse to continue the test and fail you on the spot. A student on our driving course in Leicester recently took his driving test and didn’t get past the first hurdle, as he had to tell the examiner that he forgot to bring his glasses to the test; this resulted in an immediate fail.
Visual Difficulties
There are certain visual difficulties that you will not need to inform the DVLA of and will not affect your driving test. Being colour blind will not stop you from seeing a hazard, so it is not required to tell your examiner. Other difficulties, such as being visually impaired in one eye but being perfectly able to see out of the other, shouldn’t prevent you from driving safely.
If you would like to know more information about the legal requirements for driving, please take a look at the GOV.UK website for driving standards.
Testing Your Eye Sight
Taking the Snellen scale eyesight test will help you to distinguish how good, or bad, your eyesight actually is. The Snellen Scale is a chart, made up of various numbers and letters getting smaller and smaller the closer they get to the bottom. To pass your eyesight requirements for driving, you must have a visual capability to read at least decimal 0.5, with or without glasses. You can have this test done at your local opticians before you book in with our driving school in Barking or the surrounding areas.
Stay Safe On The Roads
It is vital that you maintain safety when on the roads, and your eyesight can have a significant impact on how safe you drive. With poor eyesight, your vision becomes distorted, and you could miss something important while driving; this could be a missed warning sign, a hazard on the road or even the road layout. By ensuring that you have good eyesight or have your glasses ready, you can be sure that every journey is a safe one.
