Assessing the likelihood of a road accident following a sudden disability

Abstract Background: One of the major challenges in road safety is the occurrence of sudden disability attacks while driving. An important point about the occupational health of drivers who have patients who have the potential for sudden disability attacks is to estimate the likelihood and consequences of the attacks. In other words, how likely is an accident to follow a sudden disability while driving? Understanding the types of medical conditions that can cause sudden attacks and whether or not these diseases give the driver ample opportunity to drive safely on the side of the road is important in assessing drivers’ job fit. In this study, in order to answer the question that it is possible to drive a car along the road following the occurrence of sudden disability in drivers, research has been done in the reputable databases of Embase, UpToDate, PubMed, Medline (Ovid), Scopus and Web of Science. A variety of diseases such as heart disease (such as myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, etc.), stroke, epilepsy, diabetes, etc., are associated with sudden disability attacks even while driving. But in most cases, the driver has enough opportunity to drive the car to the side of the road. However, some medical conditions such as syncope, etc. do not provide this opportunity for the driver and can have unfortunate consequences for drivers following these attacks.