Check your driving
Self-monitor your driving to stay safe on the road.
In Victoria, you’re allowed to drive up to any age so long as it’s safe to do so. This means it’s important to self-monitor your driving.
If you’re finding driving difficult or stressful, speak to your doctor and consider reducing your driving or choose the option of giving up your licence.
Remember, you must notify VicRoads if you have (or develop) a long term medical condition or disability that could affect your driving.
Find out what happens after you notify VicRoads.
The safe driving checklist
Use our safe driving checklist to assess your driving safety. You can do this yourself or with someone you trust.
If you answer ‘yes’ to one or more of the questions, speak to your doctor about adjusting or reducing your driving. You may need to consider the option to surrender, or give up your licence.
Complete the safe driving checklist below.
Get a professional assessment
Get your driving assessed by a professional and find out how you can stay safe on the road:
- Visit your doctor to discuss your driving safety
- Contact your local council (External link) to find out about local driver safety programs
- If you have significant health or disability issues, you should be assessed by an occupational therapy driver assessor (link to occupational therapy.)
Stay safe on the road by monitoring your health.
To help you stay safe on the road, it’s important to monitor your health and driving ability as you get older. Ask your healthcare professional how any medical conditions may affect your ability to drive safely, and book in regular visits with:
- a general practitioner
- an eye healthcare professional (optometrist or ophthalmologist).
It’s also important to talk to your pharmacist about your medications and ask if they’ll affect your ability to drive safely.
If you notice changes in your health
If you develop a medical condition or disability that could affect your driving, you must notify VicRoads straight away. There could be serious consequences if you don’t, including:
- Putting yourself and others at risk.
- Impacts to any insurance claims. Failure to notify VicRoads could affect your insurance cover.
- Legal liability in a collision. Drivers are required under law to report to VicRoads any medical conditions that could impact their ability to drive.
Find out more about how your driving could be affected by your medical condition or disability.
Adapt your driving
As you get older, you may need to adapt your driving if you’re experiencing:
- slower reaction times
- changes to your vision or hearing
- low energy levels
- poor health.
If you notice any of these changes, you can improve your safety by:
- avoiding difficult road conditions such as bad weather, poor light or peak traffic times
- reducing your distractions such as mobile phones, music players or multiple passengers
- avoiding driving if you’re feeling tired, sick or upset.
Find out more about how medical conditions could impact your driving.
Safe driving checklist
If you experience one or more of the following, speak to your doctor about your driving safety.
- When driving, do you find it difficult to turn your head to see over your shoulder?
- Do any of your joints ache after you’ve been driving for an hour or more?
- Do you find it difficult to change your visual focus from the road ahead of you to your dashboard, or vice-versa?
- Do you find it harder to see at twilight than you used to?
- Do you have trouble seeing pedestrians stepping off the pavement while you’re concentrating on the road ahead?
- Do you have trouble telling how far away objects are?
- Is glare or sunlight affecting your eyes more than it used to?
- Do you have more difficulty driving at night than you used to?