Healthy Driving
Your health and safe driving
Driving is a big part of Australian culture and is a key to freedom, mobility and independence for us all. The privilege of driving comes with responsibilities; the most important of these is the responsibility to consider your own safety and the safety of others when you are on the road.
It is your responsibility to regularly assess your condition
and make an informed decision about your ability to drive safely.Most Australian states and territories have now passed legislation that requires drivers to contact their licensing authority and report any condition they have that may have a long-term effect on their driving.
It's not about your age - it's about your ability to drive safely!
Your doctor also has a duty of care to report your condition to relevant licensing authorities if they feel you are not fit to drive and that you will not contact your licensing authority yourself. Your doctor is obliged by law to do this and is covered legally for breach of doctor-patient confidentiality.
This is not to try and take away your licence - it is to protect your safety on the road and the safety of others.
Safe driving
Acknowledgment: ADF 'Managing Medicines and Driving' brochure and DVA Senior Medical Adviser.
Driving safely requires attention to many things at once and the ability to react quickly when something unexpected happens. To do this a driver needs:
- Mental alertness
- Clear vision
- Physical coordination
- The ability to react appropriately.
Your driving ability can be affected by:
- Ageing - Age related deterioration of vision, physical function and coordination and mental alertness
- Substance abuse - alcohol, marijuana etc.
- Medical conditions - like Sleep Apnoea, unstable heart disease, poorly controlled epilepsy
- Medication - anything that might make you drowsy or less alert, including over the counter medications and some herbal medications
- Sensory loss - problems with vision
- Physical disability - lower-limb disability, severe arthritis, amputation.
Drive safely!
ALWAYS
Check with your doctor if you think that you may not be 100% fit to
drive.