Epilepsy/Seizures and driving.
Discussion
Hello all. Does anybody on here suffer with Epilepsy/Seizures and how does this affect your rights on having/keeping a driving licence. Just after general info really car wise, but if anyone has stories relating to a truck or bus licence I would also be very interested in this also.
Please PM me if you don't want to put it on a general forum, any help greatly appreciated, thanks, Neil
Please PM me if you don't want to put it on a general forum, any help greatly appreciated, thanks, Neil
This was covered in the news recently in a negative way - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/dvla...
As I understand it the minimum is 6 months after your last seizure and can go up from there depending on what some faceless "panel" decide. I'm not sure about the heavy goods but I do know they remove at least one of the classes when you get a normal license back. I think for newer drivers they didn't get that class anyway without a further test.
If you are going through it then I would be explaining your worries to your doctor / consultant and asking them to fill the forms out sympathetically. You can also request copies of all information - although this takes ages and there is also no obvious way of debating with the "panel" anyway.
You are in the lap of the gods essentially and they don't move fast - everything takes an age.
As I understand it the minimum is 6 months after your last seizure and can go up from there depending on what some faceless "panel" decide. I'm not sure about the heavy goods but I do know they remove at least one of the classes when you get a normal license back. I think for newer drivers they didn't get that class anyway without a further test.
If you are going through it then I would be explaining your worries to your doctor / consultant and asking them to fill the forms out sympathetically. You can also request copies of all information - although this takes ages and there is also no obvious way of debating with the "panel" anyway.
You are in the lap of the gods essentially and they don't move fast - everything takes an age.
whoami said:
Hi Neil, I thought you were over this now?
Sort of. I'd got over dealing with the medical panel at the Dvla as no matter what evidence I produced about my fitness to drive, they just point blank refused to listen. I'd exhausted every avenue, my MP, the transport minister and the Dvla all proved worthless as the medical panel just kept coming up with the same very dubious ruling on my case. In light of the ombudsmans findings this week though with regards to the failings of the Dvla medical panel I feel it could certainly be worth trying to get these wrongs put right. It won't cost me anything other than my time, and I would take great satisfaction in getting anything that resembles an apology or my lorry licence back from the idiots that have made the last 2 years a struggle.
The ironic thing is though, I still haven't to this day in my lifetime ever suffered a seizure or had any treatment or medication that is seizure related, in fact I never had any medication at all after my injuries other than strong headache tablets.
The whole thing stinks as much today, as it did 2 years ago!!!
The ombudsmans findings certainly fill me with some hope.
chilistrucker said:
Sort of. I'd got over dealing with the medical panel at the Dvla as no matter what evidence I produced about my fitness to drive, they just point blank refused to listen. I'd exhausted every avenue, my MP, the transport minister and the Dvla all proved worthless as the medical panel just kept coming up with the same very dubious ruling on my case.
In light of the ombudsmans findings this week though with regards to the failings of the Dvla medical panel I feel it could certainly be worth trying to get these wrongs put right. It won't cost me anything other than my time, and I would take great satisfaction in getting anything that resembles an apology or my lorry licence back from the idiots that have made the last 2 years a struggle.
The ironic thing is though, I still haven't to this day in my lifetime ever suffered a seizure or had any treatment or medication that is seizure related, in fact I never had any medication at all after my injuries other than strong headache tablets.
The whole thing stinks as much today, as it did 2 years ago!!!
The ombudsmans findings certainly fill me with some hope.
That does sound rubbish. Best of luck with getting it resolved!In light of the ombudsmans findings this week though with regards to the failings of the Dvla medical panel I feel it could certainly be worth trying to get these wrongs put right. It won't cost me anything other than my time, and I would take great satisfaction in getting anything that resembles an apology or my lorry licence back from the idiots that have made the last 2 years a struggle.
The ironic thing is though, I still haven't to this day in my lifetime ever suffered a seizure or had any treatment or medication that is seizure related, in fact I never had any medication at all after my injuries other than strong headache tablets.
The whole thing stinks as much today, as it did 2 years ago!!!
The ombudsmans findings certainly fill me with some hope.
I'm a little confused, if you've never had a seizure, how/why have you been diagnosed with epilepsy?
12 months without a seizure before you can reapply for your licence is generally the rule they apply.
Unfortunately what they don't seem to understand is that there's so many different types of seizures, and the effect they have can differ considerably from one person to another.
The idea 'if you have epilepsy you can't/shouldn't drive' is ridiculous.
op, have you been to see a hospital consultant/neurologist?
I'd have thought a report from him/her would be sufficient...
12 months without a seizure before you can reapply for your licence is generally the rule they apply.
Unfortunately what they don't seem to understand is that there's so many different types of seizures, and the effect they have can differ considerably from one person to another.
The idea 'if you have epilepsy you can't/shouldn't drive' is ridiculous.
op, have you been to see a hospital consultant/neurologist?
I'd have thought a report from him/her would be sufficient...
Edited by Leroy902 on Saturday 22 October 18:51
Edited by Leroy902 on Saturday 22 October 19:15
NorthDave said:
That does sound rubbish. Best of luck with getting it resolved!
Cheers.Thanks Leroy, I did think it was a 12 month thing with the seizures.
I was searching stuff online, and found the minutes of 1 of the DVLA medical boards meetings. It stated that they themselves acknowledged that they needed to address the whole seizure risk categories as what they had in place, was generalizing to much.
No s
t Sherlocks. These minutes were from early this year iircLeroy902 said:
Unfortunately what they don't seem to understand is that there's so many different types of seizures, and the effect they have on people can differ considerably from person to person.
The idea 'if you have epilepsy you can't/shouldn't drive is ridiculous'.
I think you'll find they do, at least the form that needs to be completed differentiates between waking and sleeping, blackouts and altered levels of conciousness, whether medication causes drowsiness and Gp and/or consultants will provide additional information.The idea 'if you have epilepsy you can't/shouldn't drive is ridiculous'.
Here's the form: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...
and the advice page definitely mentions different types of seizure:
https://www.gov.uk/epilepsy-and-driving
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