sunglasses wilst driving

[topforcein 1764]

ok so when i was loging out of my email i saw a article from the birmingham mail(uk) that you can get fined upto £5000 if caught driving with the wrong sunglasses

now apparently there are 4 categorys being 1 to 4 and being 4 is the one where you can get done if pulled over by the police and your sunglasses fall into the num 4 cat 

as it sounds to me the same a window tinting on the front doors

know i do have a pair of green lenses raybans and i have contacted them to try and find out what cat mine fall into but tbh they never herd of this so could not really help me

dont know how it works but hey it seems like another way of ripping of drivers 

this is really a heads up to anyone who wears sunglasses wilst driving

[Mad Ax 10026]

This might be what you want

https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/safety/driving-in-sunglasses#:~:text=All sunglasses should%2C by law,not recommended for night driving.

It seems to say that, in theory, all sunglasses will be labelled with the category, and that should help you know if they're OK to drive in.  Although from the looks of it, only the very darkest sunglasses are not legal for driving in the day, so unless you're specifically buying the darkest lenses you can get or you are habitually driving in the dark with sunglasses on, you should be OK.

OTOH, I've just checked my cheap off-the-shelf-in-the-newsagents sunglasses as the text has worn off, so one would assume that I could be in trouble for wearing sunglasses without the appropriate markings.  Although I wear prescription lenses for driving, so the point is moot.  (I expect the markings are worn off my prescription glasses too, they're quite old).

However - I would expect that, to get a prosecution for wearing sunglasses with no markings, you have either got to be unlucky enough to get the most jobsworth cop in the nation, or you have failed the attitude test and they're looking for anything they can get you on.

The interesting comment is the one about yellow lenses.  These are often advertised as reducing glare and making driving easier in low light, and yet they are "not recommended" for night driving.  I'm not sure what the crossover is between low light and night.  I've got a pair of yellow tinted prescription glasses and I've never been entirely sure if they help during foggy conditions, or not.  They may just be a marketing gimmick.  I thought they might help with SAD by adding a summery, yellow glow to everything, but apparently blue lenses are supposed to be better for that.

[Superluminal 3841]

4 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

you have failed the attitude test and they're looking for anything they can get you on.

I think like most driving offences in the UK its most likely this that is likely to get you pinched for wearing the wrong glasses. Unless your driving at lightspeed or like a complete cockwomble that you are pulled over for something else first they are unlikely to pull you over for sunglasses maybe being too dark as it would be almost impossible to tell from outside of the vehicle.

I did read something the other day though about them starting to look at doing roadside tests of peoples eyesight. As the being able to read a reg plate at 20m is a condition of holding a licence. Again though I'd imagine it would come from being pulled over for some other misbehavior first.

[Gebbly 760]

If your really concerned you may be able to take your glasses to an opticians and ask them if they can tell you the level of tint in the lenses.