Am I right not to feel safe getting in a car (with my son) with a man (driver) who had suffered brain injury?

Question

Am I justified to feel this way? Hi said himself that it suffered major brain injury in an accident years before. He cannot move his head from side to side easily, he has very slow reaction time and motor skills but yet he was able to get his license years ago. He does not own his own car but rents a car every weekend.

Answer 1

Personally I wouldn't feel safe going into a car with him

Answer 2

After any significant injury, including traumatic brain injury, driving may be out of the question until patients recover substantially.



TBI Complications that Limit Driving

The main reason that patients will be unable to drive after their traumatic brain injury is that they are suffering from physical disabilities, mental impairment or both. Although many technologies help the physically disabled drive, to date, no aide exists for overcoming mental impairments to enable driving.

This is primarily due to the fact that mental complications of traumatic brain injury can include the inability to focus, loss of short-term memory and vision problems, all of which critically limit a person's ability to drive. Because surgery and/or medication can only improve these TBI complications to a limited degree, those suffering permanent mental complications from traumatic brain injury may never be able to drive again.



Who Can Drive After TBI

Despite the fact that many are never able to drive after traumatic brain injury, plenty of other TBI patients don't suffer severely disabling complications or recover sufficiently, giving them the capacity to eventually drive.

Some of the factors that affect the likelihood that a TBI patient will eventually be able to drive include:

• the patient's age (Younger patients are more likely to recover than older TBI patients.)

• the patient's outlook on and effort in recovery

• the patient's support team, including his doctors, therapists, family and friends (Those with a stronger, more reliable support team will make great strides during recovery.)

• the severity of the primary injury and the resulting complications

• whether or not the patient had driving experience before the injury that caused brain damage (Those with prior experience driving will have an easier time re-learning the experience.)

There is more info on tests used to determine driving ability through the link.

Answer 3

Personally I would walk. DO NOT get in a car with him.  I don't know where you are right now, but I'm in Toronto, Ontario and there are specific guidlines that Dr.'s have to follow for the man to even have a drivers license.  He should be reported to his GP or the Ministry  of Transportation.  I'm sure he will be upset when they permanently suspend his drivers license, but if he kills someone, even worse. TAKE A TAXI !!!!!