![Launching the Medical Fitness to Drive Guidelines, Liz O’Donnell said: ‘It’s right and proper there are rules around when a person should and shouldn’t drive and these include a person’s mental and physical capacity [but] we must not use medical-fitness rules in a heavy-handed way.’ Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill/The Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/K2YU3PQLHL4WZSGJURNWGPITL4.jpg?auth=10e15a60f67eb2f136f65736b959f2302b0a74d3978b8b891258814e35d0b1aa&smart=true&width=1024&height=576)
Rules covering a person’s mental and physical ability to drive should not be applied too stringently, said chairwoman of the Road Safety Authority Liz O’Donnell. She is appealing for balance and care in the way the rules are applied.
Launching the Medical Fitness to Drive Guidelines in the Royal College of Physicians, Ms O’Donnell said, “It’s right and proper that there are rules around when a person should and shouldn’t drive and these include a person’s mental and physical capacity.”
But, she said, “we must not use medical-fitness rules in a heavy-handed way”. Ms O’Donnell said there was “emerging evidence that being forced to stop driving is linked to feelings of loneliness and isolation which in turn can lead to further mental-health issues”.
She said the new guidelines embody “an ethos of promoting mobility and attempts to strike that vital balance”.
The guidelines – a review of earlier versions – were a collaborative effort under the guidance of Prof Des O’Neill National Programme Director for Traffic Medicine. The collaborative group was chaired by Dr Declan Bedford, chairman of the Working Group on Traffic Medicine.
