Police checks throughout September will see drivers lose their licence if they can’t read a number plate from 20 meters.
Thames Valley police are to run a month-long campaign on driver vision, revoking the licenses of those who don’t pass the 20m number plate check. The checks are part of a wider campaign by charity ‘Brake’ to encourage the public and the Government to take driver vision seriously, with an estimated 1.5m UK licence holders never having had an eye test. In the UK, driver vision testing requires only a 20m number plate check to be taken during a driving test and nothing else for the rest of a driver’s time on the roads.
Government driving eyesight rules
• You must be able to read (with glasses or contact lenses, if necessary) a car number plate made after 1 September 2001 from 20 metres.
• You must also meet the minimum eyesight standard for driving by having a visual acuity of at least decimal 0.5 (6/12) measured on the Snellen scale (with glasses or contact lenses, if necessary) using both eyes together or, if you have sight in one eye only, in that eye.
• You must also have an adequate field of vision – your optician can tell you about this and do a test.
Redgate Opticians offers a FREE Eye Test to all.
Throughout Autumn our promotion also offers FREE Anti-Reflection coatings on all glasses (from £69 range or above). Anti-Reflection coatings reduces reflections from the road noticed by drivers particularly driving at night; making vision much clearer.
‘Drivesafe lenses’, specific driving glasses are also available for the ultimate smooth, comfortable driving experience.
Becky Cottrell
As long as u can see the car in front of u dose it matter if u can’t read a number plate so are u telling me ever driver should be reading a number plate when driving just targeting motorists again
Philip, having good vision is a legal requirement for driving, and helps prevent accidents. I’m sure you must appreciate this 🙂
Don’t think the accident has any bearing on this
Of course it does! If you can’t read a car number plate from 20 metres then you have bad eye sight overall. They are using the number plate as a measuring gauge!
So if you cannot see properly how are you going to know the car in front has slowed down or stopped.
Brian Shepherd brake lights hazard lights and not by a number plate
Susannah Ambrose
They fucking jokers
They’re enforcing a law, if you can’t read a number plate at 20m you shouldn’t be driving, simple.
Both my current and previous opticians have expressed concern to me during appointments about how lenient the UK’s eyesight requirements are for driving..
Without my glasses text/signs over 2m away become blurry…I can in fact still *just* read a plate at 20m without glasses but Legalities aside I feel unsafe driving without glasses and I don’t do it. The optician tells me there are a great many people out there who are on the road with significantly worse vision than mine, and that’s pretty worrying 😬
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-wales-45396204
The sad thing is at the required distance it is possible for a person registered as blind to pass the eyrsight part of the UK driving test.