First time for everything

[bogan]

It says correcting lenses, not contact lenses

That's the spirit, with astute observations like that, the cop have no choice but to realise you are wearing the make-eyes-good-again devices

[swtfa]

Cop stares into my eyes for another 10 seconds... then continues to lean in until maybe only six inches away (it was getting weird at this point) ...

Whoah Whoah... personal bubble

[The_Duke]

Yeah, coz then you could have gone home and started a thread bitching about a cop doing an unlawful eye test.........

Unlawful? He's a cop! When they've stopped you, for intents and purposes they ARE the law.

All I'm saying is simply asking the rider to identify an object or read a sign 30 metres away is a far more effective method of making sure the license conditions are being met.
Getting folk to rip fragile bits of gel out of their eyes usually results in WORSE eyesight for several minutes after they're re-inserted...

[Ender EnZed]

Blame the arses who wrote the law.

How is a cop with nil training as an optometrist supposed to check if you have your contacts in? Would it really be better if they just believed what people said?

I don't think there's anything wrong with the law, but it seems that plenty of cops are unaware that contacts can't just be taken out and put back in easily. This is undoubtedly true of most people who don't have to deal with contacts themselves but most people have no need to. Perhaps police training to check for correcting lenses should include this important piece of information.

[YellowDog]

Lower Hutt suburban street, 10am saturday morning (today)

Cops stopping all traffic for breath testing, wof & rego checks. Buddy gets me to count to ten- no problem.
Checks my wof & rego- all current & valid, believe it or not!

Then checks licence...... notices the conditions on the back state I must wear correcting lenses at all times. I'm blind as a bat so am obviously wearing contacts.
He then states "I'm going to look deeply into your corneas now to check for the correcting lenses- look straight ahead please."
After a short eternity, he appears pleased with himself and says: "I can't see evidence of contact lens being worn- I find you in breach of your license conditions."



Incredulous, I explain to him that my eyesight is so bad that I wouldn't have even been able correctly identify my motorbike in the garage, let alone ride the damn thing down the road without contacts!
Cop stares into my eyes for another 10 seconds... then continues to lean in until maybe only six inches away (it was getting weird at this point) before finally giving in with "OK...yeah I see them now.... you can uh, go."

His disappointment at not being able to fine me for ANYTHING was obvious.

I'm all for making sure vehicles are safe for all road-users etc., but the whole operation just had the heavy air of a revenue-gathering exercise. Not good.

I had laser corrective surgery on my eyes in 2005.

This caused me a huge problem with the cops, as the UK's DVLC system wasn't able to remove the fact that I used to wear glasses from their database. I would hope that it has changed by now, however at that time the only way they'd let me off was to actually give me an eye test at the side of the road.

[Road kill]

Unlawful? He's a cop! When they've stopped you, for intents and purposes they ARE the law.

All I'm saying is simply asking the rider to identify an object or read a sign 30 metres away is a far more effective method of making sure the license conditions are being met.
Getting folk to rip fragile bits of gel out of their eyes usually results in WORSE eyesight for several minutes after they're re-inserted...

All very good,,but that would make good sense and kind of fuck the cops argument,,,an we can't have that can we.