The Road to Recovery: Driving & Transportation

What skills do you need for safe driving?

• Attention to all aspects of driving, including concentrating for long periods of time, paying attention to many things at once (pedestrians, other cars, traffic signals) and ignoring distractions

• Memory for directions, landmarks and routes

• Judgment for making decisions about lane changes, merging into traffic or keeping a safe distance from others

• Reaction time for responding quickly to emergency or other unexpected situations

• Insight for making appropriate and safe decisions based on your abilities and the road conditions

• Adequate vision and visual fields for seeing objects in front of you and to the side (peripheral vision), such as cyclists

• Range of motion including limb, body and neck movement needed to safely operate vehicle controls and check blind spot

• Muscle strength and endurance needed to operate, enter and exit your vehicle

• Coordination and dexterity to steer, accelerate and brake smoothly

• Hearing adequate for sirens and car horns

• Frustration tolerance and ability to control emotions in difficult situations, such as traffic jams or being cut off in traffic

How can your therapy help you?

• Your team of therapists will assess your driving-related skills and provide treatment to help you practice these skills.

• You might work with occupational therapy, social work or physiotherapy, depending on your needs.

• A neuropsychological evaluation may be done to evaluate your thinking skills more thoroughly.

• This team can help you determine if and when you are ready to begin the return-to-driving process.

• It is often necessary to allow adequate recovery time and to participate in therapies before returning to driving—even if your license is not suspended.

• Information from the rehab team will be sent to your doctor who may use it to help make decisions about your medical fitness to return to driving.

• Unfortunately, some people’s abilities do not improve enough to allow them to return to driving.

• Your therapists can suggest other transportation options, such as Wheeltrans, Red Cross, Sprint and if appropriate, using public transit. By not driving, you save about $20 per day (CAA 2007), which can help to pay for other transportation.

Safe driving Internet resources

• www.caa.ca/driving - Canadian Automobile Association

• www.safety-council.org – information on defensive driving courses

• www.otworks.ca/default.asp?pageid=1 – occupational therapy web pages with information about driver’s rehab

• www1.aota.org/olderdriver – American Occupational Therapy Association pages

• www.candrive.ca – Aims to improve the health, safety and qualify of life of Canada’s older drivers

Legal process for return to driving

1. A medical report by a physician or a neurologist stating that all the residual deficits including physical, cognitive, visual and perceptual, have been addressed. This may include information from your rehab team.

2. An ophthalmology assessment report—if there has been a visual field loss.

MTO Driving Assessment Centres (Greater Toronto Area)

• Formalized assessments that include an in-car evaluation

• Driving lessons, vehicle modification recommendations.

Tips for return to driving

• Be sure to have up-to-date prescription glasses and consider getting sunglasses to manage glare.

• Plan your route in advance at home and leave early to avoid rushing.

• Allow a generous space between your vehicle and others.

• Always carry a cell phone so you can get help right away.

• Start driving in a safe, familiar, low-traffic area such as an empty parking lot or quiet back street.

• Start with very short driving sessions (10 minutes). Slowly build up to longer sessions over time.

• Avoid driving on busy streets and highways until you feel completely competent with basic driving.

• When you start highway driving, aim for off-peak hours. Stay in the collector lanes so you can get off the highway easily if needed.

• Drive with a passenger first. They can help you to navigate your route, and they can take over if you get tired.

• Reduce distractions within the car. Avoid listening to the radio or having conversations with passengers while driving.

• Remember, it is against the law to use hand-held cell phones, and communication and entertainment devices while driving in Ontario.

• Keep the temperature and the air flow comfortable.

• Avoid driving when tired or stressed. Be very cautious about event and night driving—drivers are more likely to make errors at these times.

• Avoid driving in difficult road conditions, such as rain or snow.