OHTA.ca

My question is:

After neck surgery I am wearing a neck brace. I had asked the surgeon; who performed the surgery, "How long before I can drive?" He responded; "in a week or so , "When you can do your properly shoulder checks". Last week end I was allowed to go home from rehab for the week end; on Sunday I drove to the local Canadian Tire Store. It had been two weeks since surgery and I can do my shoulder checks easily and properly; although with a little more difficulty than before surgery. I am sure the titanium plates fusing a number of my vertebrae has something to do with that. When I returned to rehab, I mentioned that I had driven to the store. The physiotherapist was a little surprised that I would be driving and offered that the doctor in the rehab center where I was assigned to, would generally not advise driving at such an early stage in recovery. So, that afternoon I checked; with said doctor, and here stated that he was surprised that the surgeon would suggest that driving would be alright considering I was wearing a neck brace which restricts my head rotation ( it does but I can make shoulder checks as required). But, he didn't come out and say it was not allowed. Can someone shed some light on what the Ontario Highway Traffic Act has to say about this instance? I am somewhat confused.

I realize this is a very late reply but the HTA does not set out a qualification on exactly what the medical standards are, except that if your attending physician feels that it is unsafe for you to drive, he/she is to notify MTO.

I get the impression that he didn't think it was entirely unsafe, but definitely thought it was less than ideal. Just sayin'.

Even I feel the same that I guess it is unsafe because when I was in similar situation 6 months back it took time to recover.

If you adjust your mirrors to eliminate blind spots, as recommended by the SAE, then you don't need to turn your neck very much at all:

I've been doing this since I bought a car with two mirrors in the late eighties (first had only the driver's mirror .. younger people won't remember cars without both). So roughly 25 years. The only caveat is on multi-lane highways, if you're one of two cars on the two outside lines both moving into the centre at the same time, and the other car is slightly behind you. That's the only time I've been surprised to find someone there.

Funny side note: sometimes when I have friends in the car, I notice them doing the shoulder check for me because they see me changing lanes without doing it.