This post has caused its share of divisive posts etc, which is both fun and a bit of a shame at the same time. Also sad that
@JohnWhi has preferred to abandon this post rather than read any more contradictory and entrenched disparate views.
My brother-in-law is a retired police inspector, who spent many years on traffic duties, including motorway patrols. He saw some ridiculously amusing things, as well as some horrendous sights. But I recall him explaining that he was glad to retire because increasingly legislation was removing any discretion from him as a policeman. Once he came across a breach of the law he was obliged to document and process it, with a consequent award of a fine and points on someone's licence - when frequently his instinct would have been to caution the transgressor, explain why it was wrong and send them on their way. Common sense and his judgement was no longer applicable. I understand his angst about the policing world he'd found himself in. This wasn't just traffic duties either. As an Inspector, running a medium sized Police Station was no longer fulfilling and rewarding, just a daily struggle to comply with externally directed administrative procedures - lacking in common sense or understanding of people's actual needs.
Sadly, I think the DVLA rules can't cope with the rapid development of technology in our diabetic worlds, nor allow any discretion in interpretation by either a driver or traffic officer. Looking at anything other than the road while driving, such as checking a sweet wrapper before you unwrap the sticky sweet can be interpreted as driving without due care and attention. Eating an apple while driving is illegal, but lighting and smoking a cigarette is not. There is no logic or common sense and the traffic officer has no discretion. Well before this thread started I had already worried myself about what was permissible and legal in connection with CGM and my D.
I routinely keep my Libre low alarm at 5.6 and use the alert as just that - an alert that I am at that threshold. For me this presents 2 different problems: it is a rare day when my actual BG is within even 2 pts of my Libre and this varies day by day, so the trend is more important than the reading. But that brings the 2nd problem that legally I can't look at any device to see the trend; I'm not sure that having this data displayed on my windscreen (even if my car was modern enough and that I had the technology to achieve this) is legal. Its distracting from my driving and one step from reading my text messages and 2 steps from reading an e-book on my screen! So, in theory, I have to wait for hypo symptoms before taking action. Incidentally having hypo response food close to hand while driving does not mean it is legal to eat or drink; that is easily construed as driving without due care and attention.
Pulling over onto the motorway hard shoulder is illegal except in an emergency, is an alert at 5.6 an emergency? My neighbour, an elderly gentleman with a prostate problem, was fined for stopping to relieve himself; negligible traffic around, done behind the barrier; and the policeman told him he should have gone earlier or wet himself as he drove! How distracting would that be and far from compliant with driving with due care and attention once soiled; the traffic officer had no discretion, the motorway camera and police car technology recorded the incident and prosecution became inevitable. In UK we have service stations at irregular intervals, at least in France the frequent rest stations allow one to exit the autoroute quite quickly, if necessary.
It's all a conundrum. The DVLA vocabulary is a bit ambiguous; common sense and judgement can't be applied (surely it's safer to take a small response of either looking or eating something at 5.6 rather than when with hypo symptoms); the diabetes technology is potentially never going to meet the letter of the DVLA law; the pharmaceutical companies have no incentive to improve their sensors, readers and apps to provide better display or audible information about the actual reading - and anyway I suspect its an impossible task to make that possible on every reader, phone in any car! If you take a phone call while driving is that really hands free even with a very modern car? Buttons to press and concentration distracted? If you make a call, even more distraction getting the number selected. Surely breaching due care and attention?
Anyway, rant over. I see the problem, have no idea how it can be resolved and feel sorry for insulin dependent diabetics who depend on driving for their living. Will my MP pay any attention, even if I can describe the predicament sufficiently well to get her attention?
