Evaluation of Traffic Safety Risk of Drivers Who Use Bioptic Telescopic Lenses

Abstract

A study was performed to determine whether drivers who were required to wear a bioptic telescopic lens (BTL) device while driving posed a greater risk to traffic safety than drivers of similar ages and the same sex not wearing BTLs. Significance tests were performed to determine the differences between the BTL group and the comparison group on 2-year total accident, fatal or injury accident, and total citation rates. The results indicated that the BTL group had substantially higher total and fatal or injury accident rates than the comparison group both before and after statistical adjustment of these criterion measures for age and sex differences between the groups. However, an opposite result was found for total citations: the unadjusted and adjusted rates for the BTL group were significantly lower than those for the comparison group. The driving records of the subjects who use BTLs also showed that only 35% of them had been restricted from driving at night, as required under the department’s licensing policy.

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