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1. Ideal Proforma of a driver's health report
2. What are the social drinking rules?
3. Effect of drunken driving
4. How long it takes for a safe driving after drinking?

1. Ideal Proforma for a driver's health report

Ans :

1. Name Age Sex address
2. Blood Pressure/ pulse/ ECG base line/
3. SGOT/SGPT If alcoholic
4. Blood Sugar
5. History of: Fits blackouts/ Strokes/ Brain haemorrhages (subarachnoid haemorrhage, subdural haemorrhage)/ Head injury/ Brain tumours/ Neurosurgery/ Dementia/ Angina while driving, heart attacks, heart operations, heart valve replacements, aneurysms, heart failure/ Any form of cancer other than skin cancer, treatment for cancer, radiotherapy/ Severe mental illness requiring hospital admission, alcohol or drug abuse/ Diabetes/ Visual problems
6. The conditions which may affect driving but do not necessarily warrant reporting.

Surgery. Cease driving until fully recovered.

Drugs especially sedatives, drugs for depression and anxiety.

Angina, palpitations, severe high blood pressure.

Heart Valve disease if no symptoms.

Grip Test: > 35 LB/ < 35 Lb
Functional Reach Test: < 6 inches/ > 6 inches
Go up and Go test: Less than 15 seconds/more than 154 seconds
Visual Acuity/Colour Blindness/Night Blindness
Visual acuity: Requirement atleast 20/40 in the better eye and 120 degrees of horizontal peripheral vision.
Ability to read a car number plate at 20 meters.
Ability to read a newspaper or magazine held 14 inches (at arm's length) from the eyes; generally newspaper type is equivalent to 20/40 on the Snellen near visual acuity chart.

DRUNKEN DRIVING

2. What are the social drinking rules?

Ans : The rules

Nothing but time sobers you up. - sleeping, coffee or taking a shower does not work.
Always count the hours and plan ahead. - Do not drink at lunchtime if you're driving that evening. Do not drink the night before if you've got an early start.
Drink none for the road. - The limit is 80mg per 100ml of blood, or 35micrograms in 100ml of breath. But what on earth does that mean? If you have to drive, the only way to be safe is to drink nothing. Even half a pint affects your reactions.
There's no accurate guide to how much you can drink to stay under the limit. Blood alcohol concentration depends on your height, weight and fitness.
Take responsibility for others. - Never buy a drink for someone who is planning to drive. If you catch someone drinking and driving, inform the police anonymously.

3. Effect of drunken driving

Ans : That's probably why 40% of all traffic fatalities, and 60% of boating fatalities, involve alcohol abuse. There's no way you can drive better when you've been drinking. You only think you can, because you're drunk.

4. How long it takes for a safe driving after drinking?

Ans : It takes about one hour for a healthy person's liver to get rid of half a pint of beer, lager or cider, one glass of wine or one pub measure of spirits.

12hrs - 6pints
11hrs -
10hrs - 5pints
9hrs -
8hrs - 4pints
7hrs -
6hrs - 3pints
5hrs -
4hrs - 2pints
3hrs -
2hrs -1pint
1hrs -
0hrs - 0pints

If you finish drinking your sixth pint at 11pm , you won't be totally sober until 11am the next day.

When using your cellular phone while driving, always remember your number one responsibility is driving. If you do use a cellular phone, take the following precautions:

Always assess traffic conditions before calling
Be familiar with the phone's keypad - use speed dial if possible
Place calls when stopped, or have a passenger dial
Ensure phone is within easy reach
Use speaker phone/hands-free device
Avoid intense, emotional or complicated conversations
Avoid talking on phone in congested traffic or bad weather
Pull off road to dial or complete a conversation
Loss of vision in one eye does not prevent driving, provided that the person has adjusted to it. Glaucoma, colour blindness and cataracts do not mean you cannot drive, provided you meet the standard required.

1. Commercial vehicle drivers should be completely medically fit.
2. Roadside accidents depend of the driver, the state of the vehicle, the roads and the environment.
3. Patients suffering from diabetes on insulin should not be allowed to drive commercial vehicles.
4. People who snore in the night should have medical fitness before they can become commercial drivers.
5. People who snore and have more than 5 episodes of stopped breathing per hour of sleep are 4 times more likely to have automobile accidents.
6. People with 15 or more episodes of stopped breathing per hour of sleep are 7 times more likely to have the accidents.
7. Patients with uncontrolled blood should not drive commercial vehicles.
8. Pre-existing heart disease, vision disturbances, dementia can be the grounds to reject a license to the commercial vehicles.
9. The medical fitness of a driver should include clinical examination, blood test and special tests like grip test, reach test and get and go test.
10. To be a fit driver a person should be able to demonstrate 35 rounds of strength in the hand on a grip strength dynamometer.
11. A person is unfit to drive if he has:

Uncontrolled blood pressure

Uncontrolled or over controlled diabetes

History of fit in the last 3 years

For 6 months after heart attack

For 6 months after a life threatening heart arrhythmia

Colour blindness

Night blindness

Visual impairment

Physical disability with fist strength of less than 35 pounds

Physical disability with reaction time of less than 15 seconds in walking and returning 10 feet space

Reach out test of less than 6 inches on standing

Low IQ

More than 40 ml of alcohol in one hour

Within 1 hour of drinking alcohol

Under the influence of drinks

History of snoring in the night

People who snore at night are 7 times prone to accidents

Snoring is associated with daytime sleeping and reduces reflexes

The everyday delay time in Delhi traffic red light is 90 seconds which is sufficient to make these people sleep or doze while driving,

Over one-third of accidents occur because the driver is not medically fit.

To run any medical or technical machinery, we hire technically sound experts, why then hire a driver without very fine his or her credentials.

By

Dr K K Aggarwal
Executive Vice Chairman
Heart Care Foundation of India

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