Did you know that the National Highway Safety Administration notes ‘inadequate surveillance’ as a driver-related critical reason for 21% of vehicle crashes?
Inadequate surveillance is different from distracted driving. It is a situation in which a driver failed to look, or looked but did not see, when it was essential to safely complete a vehicle maneuver. Certainly, poor vision plays a part!
According to the Vision Council, more than 11 million Americans have uncorrected vision problems! Yikes! How many are driving?
Another fact: The driving fatality rate between 6pm and 6am is triple the daytime rate. Obviously people who don’t see well during the day, see even less well at night. Headlight glare is one critical reason for crashes. With 18% of the population over 65, the aging population affects highway safety. Guess what? Our attentional visual field, scanning left and right, decreases with age. Older drivers tend to keep their attention on what is straight ahead of them, with limited awareness of peripheral objects.
For safer driving, Forbes recommends regular eye exams, wearing corrective lenses, anti – reflective treatment for eyewear, illuminating headlights before dusk, and breaks to relieve eye fatigue that can occur while driving a straight highway for long periods.
In our practice, we offer eye exams 7 days a week. There really is no excuse. #WeKnowEyes
