Be careful with your eyes!

Being an ace driver is not possible without good eyesight ! 90% of the information necessary for safe driving comes from our ability to see well . On the vacation route, vision is essential; indeed you must quickly adapt to a new environment. The light intensity of the sun, the speed and the lights of other vehicles are all factors that change your usual road conditions.

Part of the road accidents related to health problems are due to visual genes. Several elements can disturb vision while driving.

Internal elements:

  • age: as we age, the eyes have difficulty perceiving space and adapt less to darkness and the transition from day to night.
  • the emotional or general state: taking certain medications, fatigue, alcohol are elements that affect visual and reflex performance.
  • visual health: on the one hand, there are badly or uncorrected visual defects such as myopia, astigmatism, farsightedness and diseases or degeneration leading to loss of visual field, night vision, color vision. ..
  • the color of the eyes: in general it is true that light eyes whose iris has little melanin are more sensitive to glare.

Neglected visual health can have several consequences when driving such as miscalculation of speed and distance traveled, poor estimation of safety distances. It also affects the perception and readability of traffic tools, decreases concentration and increases fatigue.

External elements:

  • poor lighting: many accidents occur at night or between dogs and wolves; although the traffic decreases the number of skirmishes increases. At night our visual acuity decreases sharply, which reduces our ability to detect objects and assess distances.
  • speed: the higher the speed, the more we lose visual acuity and our reaction time increases. Things scroll and the visual field is considerably reduced, impossible to realize that an animal is crossing for example.
  • glare: many motorists suffer from this, they describe flashes when driving. After exiting tunnels, changes in slope, the reflection of the sun on buildings or on other vehicles, direct sunlight can cause more or less significant glare. These make it difficult or even impossible to see so the eye's reflex response is to close your eyes! This is why it is important to wear sunglasses and even better polarized sunglasses.
Despite the importance of vision, too many people, especially between the ages of 18 and 30, have never had a visual examination or do not have their visual ability to drive sufficiently checked by their ophthalmologist. This is why ASNAV and Road Safety are offering free visual screening tests at certain motorway service areas.