On Thursday, Oct 13, 2016, 221 people made up of drivers and others enjoyed what in Nigerian parlance we call awoof. They were privileged to go through the compulsory eye screening jointly conducted by personnel from the Federal Road Safety Corps, Zone 6 headquarters, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and the Optometric Association in commemoration of the World Sight Day with the theme, “Staying Strong.” Besides the free eye screening, about 55 reading glasses were given out. A breakdown of the one day event showed that a total of 221 people made up of 187 males and 34 females were screened; a further breakdown showed that the number of persons above 18 years was 211 while the number that received glasses was 50 made up of 47 males and 3 females. Out of the total number screened, 55 people made up of 53 males and two females were referred.
Out of the total number of cases seen, some of the results were as follows: glaucoma (10), myopia (10) and hyperopia (60). There were other findings such as cases of cataract, presbyopia, bacterial conjunctivitis and allergic conjunctivitis just to mention a few. My concern is however on these findings that have significant bearings on our ability as an agency to promote a safer road culture in keeping with our statutory mandate as contained in our 2007 Establishment Act.
Let me start with the first finding that showed 10 people with cases of glaucoma. Glaucoma, as my colleague tutored me, affects the visual field of a person, which means all the points of a physical environment that can be perceived by a stable eye. Glaucoma literally can result to tunnel vision, a situation whereby the driver cannot see peripherally. Adequate visual field is very important for drivers as peripheral vision is needed for common driving tasks such as use of side mirror. Also glaucoma can affect central visual field as well resulting to the driver having hazy vision thereby knocking down a pedestrian or running into an oncoming vehicle.
Therefore drivers with visual field defects show poorer performances with driving speed, steering stability and prone to collision.
The second finding is the 10 people with myopia. Myopia is called short sightedness; drivers who do not wear their prescription glasses will be susceptible to having crashes because of their hazy vision. Night myopia is an increase in shortsightedness at night or low light levels. Drivers with this condition may be involved in night time road crashes due to the inability to see glare (blazing light) from an oncoming vehicle. It is found that night myopia is prevalent in younger drivers and such drivers should be restricted from driving at night.
As noted earlier, 60 people had hyperopia. This is called farsightedness, a condition whereby the driver cannot see properly at very near and at a near distance. In this case, the driver might have difficulty in recognizing near targets such as the speedometer and pedestrians not too far from the vehicle especially at night and as well experience glare.
From the screening exercise, two cases worth mentioning were two drivers whose conditions were indeed frightening; the first one who was about 63 years of age claimed to have driven for more than 20 years. During the one-eye-counting-test, he had vision in just one eye at 3 meters while the second one who was referred was about 40 years of age. He was found to drive drunk and had high hyperopia (long sightedness) and therefore experienced glare while driving. These two cases were similar to the one that occurred some 10 years ago at the, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where a driver was actually driving with dark glasses at night until luck ran out on him when they observed the driver had difficulty controlling his vehicle whenever there was an oncoming vehicle whose headlights obviously blurred the vision of the driver. After pleading to the driver to take off his dark glasses, a male commuter sitting by his side, smartly removed the dark glass. Shock was written all over the faces of the commuters when they saw that the driver was a one-eyed man!
•To be continued…