Whilst this a really terrible thing that he has done and I hope (probably in vain) he never gets behind a steering wheel again. I couldn’t help being amazed at how quickly this prophecy became fact..

How the **** is this a defence? “the lorry driver had been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea in late 2015 and he experienced a micro-sleep just before the crash, ”

If he knew he had a tendency to go bo bos whilst at the wheel, then surely he shouldn’t be driving at all?!

If he knew he had a tendency to go bo bos whilst at the wheel, then surely he shouldn’t be driving at all?!

Its something people are really, really reluctant to accept.

I had to have an NHS driving assessment to find out where or not I was safe to drive and whether anything needed to be declared to the DVLA after suffering nerve damage in my legs. Its a really exhaustive assessment – checks of peripheral vision, reasoning, memory, cognitive function and perception, reaction speed, physical measurements of how quickly and how hard you can press the pedals. Its like doing an IQ test, then a flight simulator followed by stationary and test track assessments in a vehicle and only then will the assessor go out with you on the open road. The test you need get a drivers license is only about 5% as thorough as the assessment of the test you need to do to keep one if illness or injury brings your fitness to drive into question.

Chatting with the assessor she was saying even people who accept that they need to be assessed don’t accept that they’re not able to drive even when measurable tests demonstrate that they can’t do so safely. And she was including anyone in that – big fat lunks driving lorries and barristers and judges with MS. And thats people who have at least consented to be tested – if people as so heavily in denial when they’re faced with objective measures of their abilities imagine how self assured they are are before they’ve been tested.

But perfectly healthy drivers are just as self deluding about speeding.

Its something that struck me with my injury was pretty much everything in life depended on my driving- my career is impossible without using vehicles, where my home is makes them necessary and so on. If I hadn’t passed that test I’d have had to close my business, move house, somehow relaunch my career and in doing all that bugger up my gf’s home and professional life as well. Pending that test I was ready to push the button and do that. But I’ve done it before I know I could do it again if I had to. I can see how easily people with careers, dependants and mortgages could be in denial about it.

Any explanation to this thread would be nice.

The first picture (fat man with no neck) is an artist’s impression of what the perfect driver is (or something), i.e. crash resistant and other stuff.

The second (fat man with no neck) is a lorry driver that is trying to claim that he should not be charged with death by dangerous driving because he has a sleep disorder and the micro sleep incident he apparently suffered prior to the accident means he’s not liable. The evidence apparently shows he opened a text before the incident, so that sounds like bollox.