Visual Function and Driving Safety

The relationship between visual function and driving competence is an important issue,¹⁻¹⁶especially in the elderly population.⁷⁻⁹Burg¹,²and Henderson and Burg³were among the first to examine the relationship between visual function and driving performance. Their results indicated that most of the visual functions they tested were not significantly correlated with accident rates. The small number of visual functions that showed a statistically significant relationship to accident rate, such as dynamic visual acuity and horizontal visual field extent, still had low correlation coefficients that made them of little value as predictors of traffic accidents. Subsequent studies⁴by others in the 1960s and 1970s, using an approach similar to that of Burg's, also found little relationship between traffic accidents and visual function. Because of this, interest in evaluating the role of visual factors in driving performance declined until recently. See also p 1709. The advent