Updated medical standards for assessing whether private and commercial vehicle drivers are fit to drive safely come into effect from 1 March 2012.
National Transport Commission (NTC) Chief Executive, Nick Dimopoulos, says ensuring drivers are fit to drive safely is a crucial element to improving road safety.
Mr Dimopoulos says as part of the NTC's role in maintaining reforms, the standards have been updated in line with advances in medical knowledge and regulatory best practice.
Assessing Fitness to Drive contains medical standards to provide guidance to health professionals and driver licencing bodies on the health assessment of private and commercial drivers of heavy vehicles, light vehicles and motorbikes.
As a joint NTC and Austroads publication, the NTC has led the revision of the standards, including undertaking extensive consultation with medical professionals, driver licensing authorities, industry and drivers.
Mr Dimopoulos says the new edition is easier to use and has some important improvements.
He says the standards now provide a more relevant and informed assessment of drivers and their abilities. The focus has moved to how the symptoms of a person’s condition may affect their driving rather than just the diagnosis of the condition.
Mr Dimopoulos says the change results in a fairer system where drivers are assessed based on their ability to drive safety, rather than just on their health condition.
Other changes include improved guidance for health professionals with respect to multiple medical conditions and age-related change, and the inclusion of flow charts to facilitate clinical decision making.
Austroads is distributing copies of Assessing Fitness to Drive to all Australian driver licensing and accreditation authorities, general practitioners, medical specialists and other relevant health professionals during February and March 2012.
An electronic version of Assessing Fitness to Drive, and supporting material, can be downloaded from
http://www.austroads.com.au/assessing-fitness-to-drive/assessing-fitness-to-drive
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