Evaluating fitness to drive after cerebral injury: Basic issues and recommendations for medical and legal communities

Specialists in rehabilitation are typically called upon to evaluate and ren der an opinion about whether or not a person can be entrusted to resume dri ving. And, because driving is an individual privilege to be balanced agains t the public's right to safety and protection from the dangers of a driver whose residual deficits may impede ability to drive safely these specialist s have developed a number of methods to assess fitness to drive. Unfortunat ely many evaluators remain unfamiliar with research used as basis for evalu ations or lack understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of tests in us e. Therefore, there may be unquestioning trust in tests and methods that le ads to errors of significant consequence in decisions about fitness to driv e as well as unawareness of expanding risks of litigation that can emanate from inappropriate recommendations. This article intends to draw attention to issues, considerations, and problems underlying the conduct of driver ev aluations, including focus on ways in which the legal and medical communiti es approach question of fitness, legal and medical definitions and terminol ogy, responsibility for assessment as well as tests and methods used in eva luations. Conclusions are drawn from discussion of these matters and recomm endations are outlined for addressing identified problems at the interface between medical and legal communities.