Fitness to drive

A person's functional ability varies naturally due to common issues such as the time of day, i.e. the time the person is in traffic, whether he or she is tired or alert, or the person's focus on driving.

Different symptoms, illnesses and injuries may also affect the driver's driving capacity. If you have some symptom, medication, illness or injury and would like more information on the impact of this on your driving capacity, do not hesitate to address the issue with a physician. People encounter different situations: many have experienced falling ill, an injury or a chronic disease. The most important thing is for you to assess whether you are fit to drive before driving.

Many diseases pose no barriers to driving as long as their treatment and monitoring is in order. A fear of losing one's driving licence may not prevail, but the best possible care and, as a result, also continuing driving, must be made possible.

If you have or have previously had one of the following illnesses, injuries or symptoms affecting your fitness to drive, discuss your situation with a physician:

• Progressive eye disease or visual impairment even with glasses/contact lenses
• Diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease (e.g. arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, heart failure, severe hypertension, structural heart defect that impacts your performance)
• Undiagnosed chest pain or undiagnosed breathlessness on exertion
• Disorder of the cerebral circulation (e.g. brain infarction, cerebral haemorrhage or a TIA attack)
• Sleep apnoea, difficulties to stay awake, long-term insomnia or unexplained fatigue
• Mental disorder or illness (e.g. major depression, panic disorder or other recurring form of anxiety, self-destructive behaviour or previous suicide attempt, personality disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, any psychotic disease or state of psychosis)
• Activity- and/or attention-related disorder (ADHD or ADD), impulsive behaviour or a disorder of emotion regulation
• Even a mild intellectual disability
• Significant learning difficulties or dyslexia
• Asperger’s syndrome, autism or other autistic disorder
• Neurological disease or disability (e.g. severe migraine, epilepsy, narcolepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumour, attack of unconsciousness or disorder of consciousness, brain injury or spinal cord injury, even mild cerebral palsy)
• Memory disorder, suspected or confirmed memory disease
• Recurring dizziness that affects normal life
• Heavy alcohol consumption or alcohol addiction
• Use of narcotics
• Regular or recurring use of medicine that can affect the central nervous system or reduce the ability to drive, i.e. controlled medications (e.g. sleeping pills, sedatives, strong analgesics, mental disorder medication)
• Diseases of the musculoskeletal system or musculoskeletal disability that can affect the use of vehicle controls (e.g. decreased muscle strength in lower limbs or decreased joint mobility, limb differences, short stature)
• Other severe disease (e.g. severe lung disease, severe liver or renal failure, cancer or previous organ transplantation, any disease that causes attacks).