SHOULD motorists with a medical history of blackouts be allowed to get back behind the wheel? Maurice Grimes, a Chicago lawyer whose 27-year-old daughter, Vanessa, was killed in a head-on collision by an unconscious driver, does not think so. He has been campaigning to change Illinois state law ever since to ban motorists with a history of blackouts from returning to the road, so far without success.
The man who killed Vanessa, 26-year-old Spyridon Botsis, was found guilty of reckless homicide and aggravated battery and sentenced in 2007 to three years in prison.
Following a minor crash less than a year earlier, Botsis had been diagnosed with neurocardiogenic syncope: the same medical condition which caused bin lorry driver, Harry Clarke's, lethal blackout in December last year.
Doctors had told Botsis not to drive, stressing during the trial that he was considered "high-risk" because the episodes came on without warning.
Mr Grimes wants doctors to be legally bound to report all patients who suffer blackouts to state officials, who could then revoke their licence, but he has faced staunch opposition from the American Medical Association which argues this would discourage patients from being honest with their doctors.
Mr Grimes said: "Their logic is that if doctors reported patients with blackout syndromes, then those patients wouldn't seek treatment and ultimately there would be more deaths."
He counters that six states already have this law and there is no evidence of a higher incidence of blackout-related crashes. He is taking his campaign to the US Senate.
The thorny issue of blackouts and driving has come to the fore with the Glasgow bin lorry crash. The fear of being stripped of a licence and, potentially, losing a livelihood, may be a significant hindrance to being fully candid.
But even where drivers have been completely honest with their GP and the DVLA following a blackout, in most cases the loss of a driver's licence is only temporary. In Mr Clarke's case, information uncovered as a result of the FAI has seen his ordinary licence revoked for one year and his HGV licence for 10 years.
This begs the question: is someone with a medical history of entirely unpredictable and untreatable blackouts ever fit to drive, particularly commercial or passenger vehicles?
Ultimately that is a decision for the DVLA, but at the very least it seems worth reviewing.
One high-profile case in Northern Ireland in 2013 saw 47-year-old motorist Mary McLaughlin jailed for ten and a half months and handed a 10-year driving ban after she continued to drive despite knowing she suffered from "no warning" blackouts.
She was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving after passing out and killing a young mother of two.
McLaughlin claimed she had learned to anticipate an attack and would not have driven if she felt unsafe, but the court was shown applications for disability allowance where she said the episodes occurred "without warning".
The judge said it was "quite astounding" that no doctor had ever told her not to drive, yet she had been "honest and candid" with both doctors and the licensing authority.
Twice her GP filled in application forms disclosing McLaughlin's history of "sudden bouts of fainting, giddiness and blackouts" and twice her licence was reinstated.
If the rules were tougher, a young mother might still be alive.
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