Editor:
Re: “Eye test designed to fail,” Letters, July 23.
I read with compassion Nancy Leathley’s complaints regarding the medical tyranny imposed by the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles over the 80-something crowd, forced to biennially demonstrate satisfactory cognitive, physical and eyesight abilities to retain driving privileges.
I certainly understand the outrage Leathley experienced having to submit to a difficult vision test, replete with flashing backgrounds and moving numbers. I am concerned as to what emotion she might feel on a dark and rainy December afternoon when confronted by the flashing of traffic lights, turn signals, brake lights, police lights and lightning, while further distracted by actual moving objects, such as cars and trucks (speeding and otherwise) and everyday unpredictable nuisances such as pedestrians, deer, bicycles, and ambulances.
Hopefully, Leathley will experience some relief once she understands that her qualified physician’s responsibility is to advise her as to whether he thinks she should be driving; our government’s mandate is to keep the rest of us safe by making sure that those who should not be driving aren’t.
Over 70 per cent of adults, 90 per cent of over 50s, and almost everyone over 75 has measurable vision degradation. Pending self-driving cars, driving will remain a fundamentally visual task. In our often dark and rainy climate, with our unlit, poorly marked, poorly maintained roads, there is no doubt that corrective lenses will help many people be better drivers. One does not need glasses, but merely a flash of self-insight, to see the obvious truth – if you drive and can benefit from vision correction, get bespectacled. So moved.
Alan Donenfeld, Gibsons
