Broken wrist with cast on

[R P Tribute]

My friend has broken his wrist and has a cast on .

The cast goes to just before his elbow.

is it legal for him to drive?

He has free movement of his thumb and fingers, tho his cast does go across his hand.

His car is an automatic

[Mecky]

Dunno, I would suspect he'd have to have the car fitted as for a disabled person. I should imagine it will also affect the insurance

[Twiglet]

Potentially. It varies from insurance company to insurance company so he needs to phone and check.

[mc55]

what did his doctor say, that might be the best place for him to check

[Cyclone]

My friend has broken his wrist and has a cast on .

The cast goes to just before his elbow.

is it legal for him to drive?

He has free movement of his thumb and fingers, tho his cast does go across his hand.

His car is an automatic

 

If it wasn't, his Dr should have told him not to.

[AMR67]

I broke my left wrist and had a cast on for 4 weeks. The hospital advised me not to drive as it could invalidate your insurance as you are supposedly not in full control of the car i.e.changing gear and operating other equipment. Luckily at the time I was driving an automatic so rightly or wrongly I ignored them.

[watchcoll]

I drove my car with a broken right leg. I didn't have a cast but a metal frame holding my leg together. The insurance company said it was fine as long i had made them aware, the doctor said it was fine, the driving instructor i booked a lesson with to check i could control a car said i was fine & the DVLA apparently didnt even need to know. I've seen another person with a frame on driving too. That was in a normal, manual geared, car.

[medusa]

When I lost the use of most of my right arm permanently I got my courage up and called the DVLA to ask them whether I'd need to take a new driving test or have an endorsement on my licence and their response was that I didn't need to do anything at all about my licence.

 

It all comes down to a personal question to ask yourself before you get in the car. Am I in full control of my vehicle?

 

As the bods at the DVLA said, someone who has stubbed their toe may not be in full control of their car today, so they shouldn't drive today. Someone with a headache which has visual disturbances shouldn't be driving either. Both are likely to be holding a full licence and neither's licence is likely to be affected by these conditions.

 

It doesn't matter what your licence allows you to do if you're not in full control of your vehicle at the time. Your friend needs to try doing some of the manoeuvres which are a daily part of driving and then try an emergency stop or two, and take his decision on whether he has the vehicle under full control. If he has then he can drive his car (as long as he's not been told by a doctor that driving is going to damage his arm or stop it from healing, of course).

 

In my case, to have a vehicle under full control meant changing from a manual to an automatic, and also making sure that the stalk controls are in a configuration that allows me to use them. My driving licence is still for a manual car though, because I passed a manual car test.