People with moderate central vision loss are legally permitted to drive with a bioptic telescope in 39 US states and the Netherlands, but the safety of bioptic driving remains highly controversial. There is no scientific evidence about bioptic use and its impact on safety. The authors propose searching for evidence by recording naturalistic driving activities in patients’ cars. In a pilot study they used an analogue video system to record two bioptic drivers’ daily driving activities for 10 and 5 days, respectively. In this technical report, they also describe their novel digital system that collects vehicle manoeuvre information and enables recording over more extended periods, and discuss their approach to analyzing the vast amount of data. Their observations of telescope use by the pilot subjects were quite different from their reports in a previous survey. One subject used the telescope only seven times in nearly 6 h of driving. For the other subject, the average interval between telescope use was about 2 min, and Mobile (cell) phone use in one trip extended the interval to almost 5 min. The authors demonstrate that computerized analysis of lengthy recordings based on video, GPS, acceleration, and black box data can be used to select informative segments for efficient off-line review of naturalistic driving behaviours. The inconsistency between self reports and objective data as well as infrequent telescope use underscores the importance of recording bioptic driving behaviours in naturalistic conditions over extended periods. The authors argue that the new recording system is important for understanding bioptic use behaviours and bioptic driving safety. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting