Title. When I drive past, I get hit by alternating shadow and bright sunlight very quickly, and it is uncomfortable for me, and I don’t have epilepsy. So just wondering if that is a concern for people who do have it.
Title. When I drive past, I get hit by alternating shadow and bright sunlight very quickly, and it is uncomfortable for me, and I don’t have epilepsy. So just wondering if that is a concern for people who do have it.
Legally? They can’t drive.
Anyone with an episode is barred from driving for 6 months, and if you have frequent episodes, well you don’t drive.
Driving is a privilege, not a right, if you can’t drive, you don’t get to. End of discussion.
This is in Canada, and would be shocked if it was much different elsewhere.
It’s the same in the US, or at least around me. Had a manager that had a seizure (thankfully just once) but they essentially had to take 6 months off because he lived far away and couldn’t commute anymore.
It’s state by state. Some states don’t make physicians report, so there’s not necessarily enforcement. I waited the six months my state requires after my seizures, but there wasn’t really any mechanism by which a cop would have known if I hadn’t.
If you were to get an epileptic seizure while driving, would it strike like lightning, leaving you zero seconds to react, or would you still have enough time to pull over safely?
It depends from person to person. Some don’t get much warning if any. They just drop. Others can tell when it’s coming and/or have warning signs they can learn. A book I read as a kid had a character who heard a train horn getting louder as the seizure came on.
Just because you can tell it’s coming doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to drive, though. Maybe you won’t get a warning next time. Maybe you’ll get stuck in traffic where you can’t pull over safely. Your faculties are already starting to go when a seizure starts to come on, maybe you’ll have poor judgement about how far you can make it before you have to stop. Maybe you’ll stop, but you won’t be good to drive when you wake up again.
Those warnings are called auras, and you can have visual or auditory auras warning you of a seizure.
Happened to my son-n-law, had a seizure couldn’t drive for a year.
Australia is the same.
The wife of a coworker of mine had her license revoked because she started having seizures after having a kid.
The time span differs. My mentor’s husband in Missouri is barred from driving for a year after a seizure; my partner mention that it’s five years in North Carolina.
I haven’t looked up any of the rules, but those are just examples of what I’ve heard.
Five years feels like an excessively long time especially if someone had a one off due to illness, or a condition that is well managed medically. I wonder if there is an appeals process.