Should doctors inform the DVLA about medical conditions?
Darren Sims has been described as being a time bomb, after being told not to drive by his doctor after suffering eighteen months of seizures. This all came to a head when he was involved in accident that killed a pedestrian.
Not only that the job that he did also had serious safety issues, he was a train driver and despite being told by his doctor and hospital consultants not drive cars or even do his job of driving a train.
This all came to a climax when at 2 pm on the 18th April when he lost consciousness at the wheel of his car, crashing into a metal post. This post hit a group of people standing on a traffic island it killed Sheri Lawrence aged twenty one.
Judge Rupert Overbury at Basildon Crown Court said, "If you bothered to listen to expert advice given over a substantial period of time by doctors and consultants, if you had heeded their advice not to drive, Sheri Lawrence would be here today.
"You deliberately disregarded advice given. Your irresponsible attitude to your medical condition is all the more alarming when it was revealed you continued to drive not only cars but passenger trains."
He added: "Your condition was such that you were like a time bomb waiting to explode. There was no way of knowing when the next epileptic episode might occur. For you to drive a car on that day or on any day was extremely dangerous and you were aware of this."
Sims was sent to jail for eight years and banned from driving for ten years, with the idea that if he ever become fit to drive again, he would need to take an extensive test to regain his licence.
Miss Lawrence's mother and father said, "We feel that the time has come for new legislation to allow the medical profession to have the ability to update the DVLA much earlier in order to stop this type of incident ever occurring again."
Source [Telegraph]
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