Epilepsy is a brain disorder that the Epilepsy Foundation estimates affects at least 3 million people in the United States. Many cultures have attached stigmas to epilepsy, often barring epileptics from marriage, eating with others, equal treatment and driving.
Significance
Although driving with epilepsy can be unsafe, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine by P. Hansotia and S.K. Broste showed that "11 percent of all car crashes involving individuals with epilepsy are due to seizures." Organizations such as the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) encourage countries to set fair guidelines for persons with epilepsy who want to drive. The IBE has a Driving Regulations Task Force that strives to streamline epilepsy driving regulations across Europe.
Types
People who cannot control seizures with medication might be barred from driving completely. Drivers with controlled epilepsy must also meet the requirements of their particular state or country. Many states, for example, require that a driver be seizure-free for three months to one year. A department of motor vehicles can also require the submission of medical evaluations by a physician.
Geography
Driving laws for epileptics are different from state to state and country to country. The United States has six states that require physicians to report an epileptic patient to the department of motor vehicles. Those states are California, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Doctors in any of these states who do not report epilepsy cases can be held liable, especially if an accident occurs because of a patient's epileptic seizure. The following countries do not allow a person who has had a seizure to drive at all: Bulgaria, Central African Republic, China, Estonia, Ghana, India, South Korea, Pakistan, Portugal, Rwanda, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
Commercial Driving
Commercial driving for epileptics is often barred. For example, people with epilepsy cannot drive trucks on an interstate, according to regulations set by the U.S. Department of Transportation. State commercial driving laws in regards to epilepsy vary for each state, but often mirror the restrictions set forth by DOT.
Considerations
Organizations such as the Epilepsy Foundation propose that many of the regulations on federal and state levels need review. Mandatory reporting of epilepsy in patients to departments of motor vehicles and blanket regulations, rather than case-by-case reviews, bind many supporters of epilepsy awareness together. Patients of epilepsy who have an aura (warning of imminent seizure), who take medicine to control seizures and who have them at predictable times are some of the case factors that the Epilepsy Foundation and IBE want lawmakers to consider.
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