Driving with glasses and sunglasses. Did you know that if you wear glasses or contact lenses to drive it is recorded on your driving licence?

There is a code on the left lower corner of the license card, 01.01 means you are required to wear glasses to drive, 01.02 means you are required to wear contact lenses to drive, and also code 02 means that you need to wear a hearing aid or communication aid. You could be liable for a hefty €200 fine if stopped by police and you are not wearing your glasses or contact lenses. At the moment there is no specific fine for not wearing hearing aids, but if they find you have driven unsafely due to the hearing impairment then you could possibly face a fine related to road safety.
You are not required by law to have a spare pair of driving glasses in the car, however, if you are required to wear them to drive as indicated on your driving licence, then if your glasses get lost or damaged you will not be permitted to drive until you get a replacement pair which could take up to 14 days. Therefore, it makes sense to keep a spare pair just in case.
Living in Spain we are lucky to have sunshine almost every day of the year, and as well as shielding our eyes from the brightness of the sun with sunglasses, we need to protect them from the harmful UV rays which are present even on cloudy days. UV damage can be in the form of cataracts, macular degeneration, eye cancers as well as inflammation and burns of the conjunctiva, cornea and external eye parts of the eyes. There are many options of sun protection available, tinted, polarised and reactolites being the most common. All must have 100% UV 400 protection and all off-the-shelf sunglasses must have CE marking EN1836:1997 on the arm of the glasses. Be aware of fake glasses as they can print this on them even though they do not meet the protection credentials. The tint colour depth has limitations for driving too. Light tint 43-80% LTF (category 1), Medium tint 18-43% LTF (category 2), Dark tint 8-18%LTF (category 3), all of these are only suitable for daytime driving. The darkest tint is 2-8% LTF (category 4), and is not suitable for driving at all. €200 fines can be incurred if you do not abide by these rules.
At Intervision Expert Opticas and Audiologias our tinted sunglasses lenses come in many different choices of colour, mirror tints, or graduated tint if preferred. Now we have more choices of colours of photochromic lenses than before, and polarised lenses with their inbuilt anti-glare. All are available in varifocals as well as single vision and bifocals.
What is the difference between tinted, photochromic and polarised lenses? Fixed tint colours are permanently coloured and reduce the brightness of the sun. Photochromic lenses change from clear to dark and back clear again relative to the amount of UV light around. They do not change in the car as most windscreens now have UV protection, however, there are now some new photochromic lenses that react to visible light and not by UV (enquire instore for price and availability). Polarised lenses are the best option as they reduce glare from reflective surfaces (eg floor, or water surface) and give improved clarity and contrast of images. All our sun protection lenses are with UV filter.
Call us for a free eye test and a chat with our Optical Advisors regarding the best options of sunglasses for you, or to book for a free hearing test and chat about our hearing aid selection.