Invalidated insurance

On the more general subject of ASD and insurance, it is first necessary to discuss what is, or could be, meant by Autism affecting your driving.  For example, you are adversely affected by noise and crowding due to your ASD.  In this case, whilst you are probably perfectly fine pootling around the back roads, if you were to be stuck on a busy motorway or in town during rush hour, then your ASD could trigger anxiety which, in turn, could lead to you making irrational decisions whilst in control of a motor vehicle.

One thing that we all have to remember is that the onus is on us as individuals to be aware of our "condition(s)" and decide whether they should be reported to the DVLA/insurance companies.  However, in road traffic law, there is often the phrase "reasonably expected" attached to just about every action/outcome of an action - inaction is considered an action - and should push come to shove, the desk sergeant in your local roads policing unit will only consider 2 documents in deciding of your actions were "reasonable" - the highway code and Roadcraft: The Police Driving Manual (or Riding Manual in the case of motorbikes etc).

Where this is important is that could you have "reasonably expected" getting stuck in rush hour traffic in the middle of London to trigger the anxiety aspect of your ASD along with the resulting outcome of violence/aggression forming the basis of "road rage", or the damage to other vehicles in your mad dash to remove yourself from this overwhelming situation?  If it is decided either by the police, the DVLA, your insurance company or an "expert witness" (doctor etc) that you could have "reasonably expected" such an outcome, you will find yourself in a lot more trouble than any possible sanctions/restrictions imposed by the DVLA on your licence.  The most common of which is a medical declaration every 3 years to verify that you are still fit to drive.

Now, as you can probably see from the above example, your fitness to drive by only be temporarily impaired.  It is therefore your responsibility to make sure that you are aware of possible outcomes on your, your ASD, your drive etc.

If you were to complete an Advanced driving/riding course through either RoSPA or IAMRoadSmart (http://www.iamroadsmart.com) you will be introduced to a number of "tools" to help you assess your fitness to drive.  For example:

I AM SAFE

I - Infection (are you physically well or are you running a fever, have a cold or anything else that could distract you?)

A - Alcohol (have you had any in the past 8 hours, for example?)

M - Medication (do you take any medication - prescription or otherwise - that could affect your risk assessments/levels of concentration etc?)

S - Sleep (are you feeling alert?  Did you get enough sleep last night? etc)

A - Attitude (how you wound up and like to be tearing off as though you are on a drag strip? etc)

F - Food (when did you last eat?  Even non-diabetics are affected by low blood sugars)

E -Emotions (are you feeling calm or have you just had a blazing row with your wife/husband/parent/sibling/child etc?)

HUMAN FACTORS

Primarily broken down into 4 key areas:

1. You. This incorporates I AM SAFE (above) as well as other aspects, Betari's Circle of Conflict/Betari's Square*), for example.

2. Your Vehicle.  Is it mechanically sound?  Have you completed the necessary pre-ride/drive checks?  Cockpit drill etc?

3. Your Journey.  What is the purpose of the journey? You are likely to approach a trip to the nearest newsagent for a bar of chocolate in a very different way than if you were rushing to the hospital because your child had been rushed in with a head injury, for example.

4. The Wider World.  Basically, everything else (traffic, road conditions, time of day, weather, road works, other road users etc etc etc)

As I hope you can see, with these "tools" in hand, you can fairly quickly decide if you are, or are not, currently fit to drive/ride.

I hope this helps...

*Betari's Circle of conflict: Your attitude affects Your behaviour which affects Their attitude which affects Their behaviour which affects Your attitude etc etc

Thank you for the Betari reference - This is a useful model.

Thank you for the Betari reference - This is a useful model.