Kentucky Administrative Regulations › Title 601 - TRANSPORTATION CABINET - DEPARTMENT OF VEHICLE REGULATION › Chapter 13 - Driver Improvement › Section 601 KAR 13:100 - Medical standards for operators of motor vehicles

Current through Register Vol. 51, No. 1, July 1, 2024
RELATES TO:
				KRS
				186.411,
				186.440,
				186.444,
				186.570,
				186.577,
				Chapter 218A, Chapter 311, Chapter 320
NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY:
				KRS
				186.570 requires the Transportation Cabinet
				to withhold driving privileges from an individual who has a mental or physical
				condition that makes it unsafe to drive upon the highways.
				KRS
				186.411 requires that a person with a seizure
				condition be seizure-free for ninety (90) days prior to licensing. This
				administrative regulation establishes the standards to be used by the
				Transportation Cabinet and Medical Review Board in determining who is unsafe to
				operate a motor vehicle because of a mental or physical condition.
Section 1. Definitions.
(1) "Altered consciousness" means a state of
			 awareness characterized by loss or distortion of the impressions made by the
			 senses or the inability to respond to the impressions made by the
			 senses.
(2) "Assessment" means an
			 evaluation of a person's substance abuse performed by a certified chemical
			 dependency counselor, a certified driving under the influence (DUI) assessor,
			 or other mental health professional in a licensed treatment facility.
(3) "Best corrected" means the corrected
			 distance visual acuity of an individual through the use of traditional
			 prescription lenses or contacts.
(4) "Chemical" means alcohol, drug, or
			 controlled substance as established in KRS Chapter 218A.
(5) "Cognition" means the ability to think,
			 perceive, and remember.
(6)
			 "Comorbid" means that more than one (1) condition is present at the same
			 time.
(7) "Corrective lens" means
			 an ophthalmic lens, whether an eyeglass, contact lens, or single lens system,
			 that corrects the refraction error or other optically correctable deficiency of
			 the eye.
(8) "Driving evaluation"
			 means a test conducted to determine if a person adequately compensates for a
			 medical, mental, or physical condition or functional impairment.
(9) "Episode" means any incident or segment
			 of time involving "altered consciousness" or "loss of bodily
			 control."
(10) "Field of vision"
			 means the entire horizontal and vertical planes a person has for each eye
			 without shifting the gaze.
(11)
			 "Functional ability" means the degree of cognitive, mental or emotional,
			 sensorimotor, and sensory capability in performing activities of daily living,
			 including safely per forming the tasks of driving.
(12) "Licensed medical specialist" means
			 anyone who is licensed in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to make a medical
			 report, make medical recommendations, or identify risk factors or other
			 conditions within the specialist's scope of medical practice regarding an
			 individual's physical or mental condition.
(13) "Licensing action" means any action by
			 the Transportation Cabinet involving the denial, cancellation, restriction, or
			 issuance of a motor vehicle operator's license pursuant to KRS Chapter
			 186.
(14) "Loss of bodily control"
			 means involuntary movements of the body characterized by muscle spasms or
			 muscle rigidity, or loss of muscle tone or muscle movement.
(15) "Loss of muscle tone" means the loss of
			 nerve impulses in muscle as distinguished from poor conditioning.
(16) "Medical condition" means any physical,
			 mental, or emotional condition that affects a person's health for which a
			 person is receiving medical or substance abuse treatment, or for which medical
			 or substance abuse treatment is usually prescribed.
(17) "Mental or emotional function" means
			 interaction and communication skills, adaptive behavior or coping capacity, and
			 orientation.
(18) "Overall
			 condition" means the presence or absence of comorbid conditions or disorders
			 affecting a person's health and information considered by the Medical Review
			 Board or department pursuant to Section 3 of this administrative
			 regulation.
(19) "Review board"
			 means the Medical Review Board established pursuant to
			 KRS
			 186.444 and
			 186.570(1)(c).
(20) "Sensory function" means vision,
			 hearing, touch, smell, or vibration sense.
(21) "Vision specialist" means a person
			 licensed to practice optometry as established in KRS Chapter 320, or a
			 physician licensed pursuant to KRS Chapter 311.