Citation

Keeney AH, Garvey JL, Brunker GF. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1981; 25: 215-221.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In the past few years legislative acts in the United States have strongly sought to place handicapped individuals into fuller lives. Such steps must be weighed against concerns of safety both for the individual and others. Monocular drivers have been found to have (1) more frequent intersection crashes, (2) a propensity for injuries on the side of blindness, (3) an increased frequency of dangerous entrance to major roads, and (4) a significantly greater rate of problems calling for evaluation of individual drivers by state medical review boards. Questions regarding the monocular driver have surfaced in courts particularly in relationship to Class I or professional drivers handling school buses, ambulances, emergency equipment, etc. This study analyzes 52 monocular drivers in Kentucky through the years 1976-80. Comparisons are derived with the rate of crashes, reckless driving, type of crashes, severity, and fixed field information such as age, sex, preexisting driver restrictions, physical data and associated diseases. Analysis of variance utilizing the chi-square technique on 2 x 2 contingency tables indicated that monocular drivers in the study had crashes at almost twice the rate of the general motoring public. In addition monocular drivers were assessed with significantly more reckless driving citations at a rate greater than one and one-half times that of their binocular counterparts licensed within the state. Further, the drivers with blindness on the right side proved to have significantly more traffic violations (rate almost five-fold higher) than those with the blind eye on the left. No significant differences were found in other parameters of traffic violations or crashes. The monocular driver, therefore, is demonstrated to have an increased highway risk, particularly when blind in the right eye, and should be so warned. The authors recommend that monocular drivers be considered eligible for Class III or private driving licenses but not for Class I or professional driving licenses. Theoretically, these monocular drivers should be helped by wide-field mirrors on the right side of their vehicles as well as on the left.