The points raised by McCluskey and Kay in their letter regarding universal testing prior to unrestricted road driving are noted. To clarify, the test would be applied by the prescribing health professional prior to allowing unrestricted road use to ensure the safety of the drivers as well as the public. There would not be any additional costs involved since this would and should comprise usual care. It appears that a system similar to car licensing tests was assumed from the statement in my conclusion incorporated in the paper though this was not intended. The intent of the test is to ensure safety of the driver and public. I concede that extrapolation of the results from this motorised scooter cohort to power wheelchair driving needs data from this user sample to support this statement. There has been further study of the driving test undertaken on a scooter and power wheelchair user cohort that has been used in testing the psychometric properties of the test. These results currently are being prepared for publication. In this paper content and construct validity is evaluated and predictive capacity for accident or falls from the vehicle are tested since safe or unsafe driving competency is likely related to greater potential for these adverse events. (Author/publisher)
Abstract