ABSTRACT
Various authors have emphasized the importance of visual perception for driving. For example, Hills estimated that about 90" of the information available to a driver was acquired through vision. One might expect good eyesight to be essential for driving. However, numerous attempts to relate involvement in accidents or performance on driving-related tasks to performance on eyesight tests have shown surprisingly small correlations between various measures of acuity and accident records. His most obvious measure of eyesight is static acuity, sharpness of vision as measured by the ability to detect fine detail in a stationary pattern. To get a clearer idea of how visual performance affects accident rates, it is preferable to compare the accident rates of groups of drivers who are matched for age and driving experience and who differ only in terms of their eyesight.
