How epilepsy affects driving and the price of car insurance
What do I associate most with the word 'epilepsy'? Well, it isn't anything directly connected to the condition, like a sufferer I know, or a particular seizure. In my lifetime, I have seen only one of them. It happened to a girl I was at school with, while we were waiting for the bus one night. She had been standing next to me, and when she collapsed she fell right at my feet, in convulsions. I had no idea what to do, but somebody with us did and she soon regained composure. Though I didn't know it, the girl had been a diagnosed epileptic for years and this seizure was one of many - an inconvenience rather than an emergency. She didn't even miss the bus. But as I said, that memory isn't what I associate most with 'epilepsy'. Instead, I think about health warnings for epileptics. They're much less interesting than someone fitting right in front of you, but they crop up a lot more often - these days on everything from TV shows to computer games and rock concerts. The funny thing is, strobe lighting - which is what all the fuss is about down at your local multiplex - can only trigger seizures in 5 percent of epileptics. For the rest, fits are most likely brought on by something more mundane; like stress, tiredness, illness or drinking. When I first heard this, it set me thinking about epileptic drivers - if there were such a thing. Strobe lighting is fairly easy to avoid in your car (just stay away from the drive-in movies), but UK motorists complain about stress and tiredness all the time, and the rate of drink driving in this country is forever on the increase. I didn't even know if epileptics were allowed to drive in this country. So, for my benefit and yours, I did a little research. It turns out the law regarding epilepsy amongst motorists is pretty strict, albeit with justification. In all but a few cases (sufferers whose seizures only arise from sleep are occasionally exempt), drivers who are affected by the condition must inform the DVLA and give up their licences. Just one seizure is enough to render you unfit, regardless of the severity or circumstances. You must contact the DVLA directly; you may not wait for a doctor to make a diagnosis; you absolutely must not drive once you know. Doing so is illegal, it invalidates your licence and cheap car insurance and it could lead to prosecution. But while on paper the law on epilepsy is ruthlessly clear, enforcing it is much less straightforward. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of potential for a knowing epileptic to avoid registering with the DVLA - because the responsibility for doing so rests with the driver, not the authority. The implications of this are frightening. In most cases people who are driving whilst unfit, say through drinking or drug use, are easy to identify - they weave all over the road, they go too fast, they are obviously out of control. This kind of driver is still very dangerous, but at least the police and other road users have the chance to detect that danger before an accident occurs, and hopefully to stop it from happening. With an epileptic driver, however, we have none of this forewarning, but just as much potential for carnage. And the temptation for 'one-off' epileptics not to declare their condition to the DVLA - perhaps because they're in denial about it themselves - must be extremely hard to resist, legal ramifications notwithstanding. For those who are upfront about a seizure there is the possibility of earning back their licence. Provided you go 12 months without a fit and are backed by a doctor's recommendation that the epilepsy is under control, the DVLA can be persuaded to issue a fixed-period (usually 3 years) drivers licence. And if you make it to seven years without a seizure, there's a good chance your long term licence will be re-issued. Epileptics who come back to driving once they have the condition drug-controlled (epilepsy rarely just 'goes away') often have an extremely hard time finding cheap car insurance. Because of this several specialist motor insurance firms have sprung up, and deal exclusively with sufferers.
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