ROLE OF VISUAL PERFORMANCE IN ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN SUDAN HIGHWAYS

Aim: Is to investigate the relationship between vision and road accidents in Sudan highways considering visual performance of the commercial drivers working along Khartoum-Maddani highway.

Methods: The study was conducted in Khartoum land port. Participation was entirely voluntary. Data was collected by interviews, questionnaire and clinical examination. The examinations were performed for 181 drivers. Functional tests had included: Automated refraction, visual acuity measurement, contrast sensitivity, visual field, stereopsis and colour vision assessment. Ocular health assessment had considered outer eye and inner eye examination. The data collected were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-16). All tests are of two sides (confidence interval of 95% level). Therefore, a probability (P) value ≤0.05 was taken to indicate the statistical significance for all analysis and spearman correlation (r) was used to identify association between variables.

Results: The results showed that (>43%) of the drivers had been involved in road car accidents; Glare was the most visual complaint (>26%). It had also revealed that (97.2%) of the drivers had binocular visual acuity within the required standard, all of them had normal field extremities, and (95.6%) had passed the colour vision test.

Conclusions and Recommendations: From this study the statistical correlation between vision and traffic accidents are weak. Most drivers reach the required eye sight standard without difficulty; some need glasses or contact lenses. To issue license the traffic authorities must assure that the driver visual performance permit to do his task without any hazards. This could be achieved by an optical means in persons with optical anomalies and this should be mentioned within their license.