Hello Beverly
I also become car sick, especially if the driver is a idiot, motion sickness is horrible and if I am not allowed 20 mins stationary,projectile vomiting is not a adequate description.
fed
hi !
I had my driving license evoked on 30/9/14. I had my license on a 3 year renewal twice and a 1 year renewal most recently.
DVLA say I should go through the magistrates court to try and get my license back but seeing the current trend it seems that the DVLA are giving other advise as well. Is there a procedure to go through or is it everyone for themselves.?
I was driving 15000 miles a year, had a license for 44 years and have had no points, no road traffic offences or accidents involving injury.
Reason ? My GP filled in the DVLA form saying I was unfit to drive. My GP decided that my reaction time was affected by PD and that if I had an accident he (my GP) could be sued. This was his opinion based on seeing me for a single 10 minute appointment in last 12 months when I was prescribed ointment for a skin rash. Never were my reaction times measured or assessed.
I have contacted my consultant by e-mail but as of today I have had no reply. During my two 1 hour consultations in the last 12 months nothing was mentioned about my driving or revoking my license
Take Care
westby
Hello Westby
This is a very harsh decision, you say your GP mentioned your reaction times how did he arrive at this decision, what tests did he carry out,and above all how do you rate your driving skills, is there even the smallest miniscule amount of self doubt in your mind, I have to ask that question the reason being that most if not all drivers will not admit that their driving abilities are impaired, and its awful when you realise you have just missed a young mother with a 3yr old walking and a new baby in a push chair when they were half way across on a zebra crossing, I was shutting down, it was about 6yrs ago or more,I MISSED THEM BY "INCHES AND I MEAN 6INCHES MAX" test yourself, this involves another person, you can do these simple tests anywhere,, just walk from your kitchen towards your favourite chair, meanwhile your wife or son or friend has sneaked into the room and as you enter they will throw a ball any kind of ball soft hard medium, or a large pillow, that has more effect as its about the size of a small child, they must throw whatever the object may be with some velocity, it has to be or its not a real test,and the result, well I have no way of knowing how you wwill react, I carried on with this self diagnosis for one week, using alternating persons, I say persons as often two of my closest buddies who knew my reason for carrying out this sometimes shocking but effective self inflicted torture, each time I was faced with the object, I never knew when or where, I jotted down how I performed, the results were shocking, bear in mind my friends were launching these sometimes painfull tests anywhere, and the results, well over the week I was only successful,,,1 in 100, tests of my reactions,oh you may think I am not really testing under the correct parameters, or on the public highway if you like, but 1 in 100, its not good is it , and I also used two categories, catching or avoiding or swerving if you like, it was my own choice to do one or the other, once again my failure rate was high,2 in 100,for swerving and 1 in 100 catching. Now I am not saying that you all rush around making plans for the week ahead, just do it for five minutes, I think if your reactions are not as should be you must give a massive amount of thought to wether you shoud continue driving,as I mentioned, this under any set of circumstances is not a true test or a road test on the highway, but just think for one second, there, one second,and another yes yes I KNOW, THE PASSING OF ONE SECOND a child runs out, a dog, you swerve, a high speed white van man doing 60 in a 30, in one second all of these terrifying events can occur 20ft ahead of you, in1second doing 30mph your vehicle has travelled 45 ft, I know I am at the worst case scenario here my friends, but its a simple fact of life or death, YOU HAVE TO BE %110 EVERY SECOND WHEN IN CHARGE OF ANY SPECIES OF VEHICLE THAT TRAVELS THE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS, NOT %100 BUT %110, I know this as I almost wiped out a Mum and her two beautiful children!! I DID NOT RENEW MY LICENCE
FEDupFED .
Please take care Westby, and all my friends drivers or not
hi fedexlike,
Good point you make. I agree I am not able to react as quickly as when I was younger, but consider I am not as reckless either and have experience. And my frustration is that there is no measured reaction to time compare with. So you will always be subjective, and so there is no DVLA maximum to get under to keep your license. On the many on line reaction time tests I scope 0.24 to 0.3 seconds. My GP mentioned that you should react within 0.1 seconds and at the time I was not sure of my facts, but I now understand that in major athletics competitions the B of the bang must be more than 0.1 seconds and most interntional sprinters respond after 0.2 sedonds
In the 2012 Olympic 100m final the reaction times were :
Bolt 0.165s, Blake 0.179s and Gatlin 0.178s
I do get tired faster and do on occation ask my wife to take over the driving and do not undertake long journeys on my own. I drive defensively and recently drove in Kuwait which is another world in terms of driving standads (not obeying traffic lights, buses stopping on inside lane of motorways, human road sweepers sweeping sand from roads.) Although not as bad as Eatern Europe in the 70s where every road was considered a racing track.
So what is the way forward. If I get my reaction time measured it is effctively meaningkess in terms of driving lisence yes/no. And of course I can say whatever reaction time there is is OK and the DVLA can say no it's not OK
Surely it must be posible to get specific measures of driving ability and not rely on the medical professions subjective opinion. OK medics I dont think are bad drivers but have they studied driving aas part of the training ? No, driving abilty must be assessed by driving professions - driving testers / advanced driver trainers.
Take Care
westby
Hi,
updating on my recent lisence revoking.
I contacted DVLA and was advised that although I put down both adresses the DVLA only contacted my consultant neurologist. If I contacted my consultant he may be agreeable to write a letter supporting me getting my lisence back.
I next contacted my nurologist and he said that he filled in a tick box form and considers that the question 3, with YES / NO tick boxes were
3. Does patent experience:
(a) Involuntary movements? YES NO
(b) Sudden and unpredictable severe slowing up (off periods or freezing)? YES NO
(c) Slowness of reaction times? YES NO
He ticked yes to these. In his opinion the DVLA medical team decided to revoke my license based partly on these answers to question 3
But as we know we can have good and bad days (or should that be bad and even worse days.) My neurologist is planning to write an explaination of the qUestion 3 answers.
I have occational freezing (once a week ) involuntary movements infrequently at night and my reaction times remain un-measured. Currently I am keeping a log of freezing etc tp support my application
My neurologist also suggestbed the RoSPA type driving test, would be good back-up (assuming I pass ofcourse.)
I also spoke with my PD nurse. She said that due to the on / off nature; you should be allowed to drive when you can. If you are tired / drunk / or other reasons you would not drive and if you freeze you can stop driving until you have recovered.
Regards
westby
If you google Motability Asssessment, a bunchh of sites will come up including what the assessments are exactly and where the centres are. They are wellused to assessing drivers with al manner of disabilities and its where the DVLC often send people where there is doubt.
Incidentally the course I took was "driver improvement" with no test at the end although you can go in for the test if you want . Although you may rightly feel that your skills when "on" are not in doubt, and the tutors are volunteers they offer a professional approach - think of it as a "critical friend" type of thing .
By the way, it is my understanding that most people with PD are as quick jumping out of the way of a bus as anyone else because this is an instinctive response whereas a lot of the function we can lose is the things we have learnt as we develop like measured walking, swallowing and not dribbling, and lots more I can't bring to mind just now.
The bit your neuro is going to clarify reminds me of travel insurance when they ask if your Parkinsons has deteriorated. Duhh!! its a deteriorating conditiion!!! The questions just don't fit the situation
It seems to me that your GP was jumping the gun and that's been tat the bottom of this. There are apparently guidelines the GP can refer to. It would be interesting to see if he has interpreted them c orrectly.
Yes I have heard from the DVLA its a no
It says on the basis of new information received
It does not say what info and from whom and yes it mentions applying to get your license back to go through the courts
But then goes on to say you may not have to go down the legal route if you can get further medical evidence to support your application
Somebody shoot me please!!!!!!!!!!!...................................Paul
THIS IS ME ,AND THIS IS U
Am I correct, dealing with our beloved DVLA is on par with trying to negotiate what is after all a sensitive matter, with one of (the worlds only 6000yrs old nutters) and you have my sympathy Stormforce, after hanging on the phone for three months, I finally got through only to find that my understanding of HINDI X URDU was sadly lacking if you throw in the tiny tiny added complication of my hearing, or lack of it should I say and you have a situation that can quickly escalate, for instance in 99 I lost all my licences when the DVLA LEARNED of my PD which was bad enough but they were also refusing to release the fact that they had taken them (my licences) to my union, I paid a extra 50p a week in union contributions to cover me losing any or all of my precious certificates , well you can imagine how I felt when my union rang me and told me I was entitled to maximum compensation of £7500 all they needed was proof from DVLA that my licences were in fact revoked, they had written , e mailed, and phoned (my union) but were told that under the DATA protection act of 1980, page 12c sub section D that they would not release the info to my union unless I gave written consent, I had already done this four times, hence the phone call and confrontation with the completely unsympathetic ununderstanding person ,I explained that unless they released the necessary proof I would not recieve my compensation,and this robot could not or would not listen,well this telephone war escalated when I asked if he had the numerous letters written by me to them (DVLA) giving my permmission to release the vital info,he told me he could not release that info to me as it was forbidden under the DATA protection,,,bla bla bla,I told him its my data and I wanted him to confirm or deny he had my letters, he just kept repeating the same thing over and over, so I exploded in truly explosively explosiveness, carefully informing him if he did not give up my data to my union I would catch the next flight to CARDIFF hire a car and visit him personaly, which with the help of a number of expletives did the trick, he handed over to his supervisor, who appologised and in 5mins ,,all sorted, my cheque arrived the next day, but I had to use up all my patience and threaten this guy with a terrible fate in order to recieve it so as I said Stormforce you have my sympathy.
Kindest Regards FED
released
DVLA is in Swansea Fed not Cardiff but I am glad you got it sorted in the end it is terrible sometimes tryong to get people to understand its like talking to a brick wall..................Paul
The next day after being diagnosed i informed the d.v.l.a who sent me a form within a week and i filled and sent it back too them the next day,2nd week of october, i havent yet heard anything from them a month, i suppose ultimately they write too the Neuro who says yey or neigh, ill give it till the end of the month before i contacted them on the nuber i noticed for enquirys.
Hello Paul, yes you are correct in saying the DVLA is in Swansea, I have crossed swords with them so many times I know exactly where it is, however Swansea, as far as I am aware does not have its own Airport, so I would have to fly to Cardiff, HIRE a car and drive to Swansea, I have flown into Cardiff many times on company business and used to be on first name terms with the car rental staff at HERTZ , happy days I used to fly down in the morning and back at night, or the following day with Eastern Air, using either SAAB2000,or the EMBRAER RJ35 , the RJ35 being the preferred choice, very smooth.
Kind Regards FED