According to the National Federation of the Blind, a person is legally blind when they have 20/200 vision or less in the better eye with corrective lens. It is against the law to drive while legally blind, and a person who has been determined legally blind is denied a driver’s license or may lose his license once diagnosed.
A legally blind woman in Charlotte, North Carolina was recently arrested for reckless driving, according to FOX Charlotte News. On August 24, the woman had been punched in the eye during a domestic dispute. The blow caused a laceration to the eye, and the eye had swollen shut. Doctors diagnosed her as legally blind and advised her not to drive.
Later that night around midnight, the woman attempted to drive home from the hospital. She turned off her headlights in an attempt to slip past hospital security and ended up hitting a traffic gate. She was arrested and charged with reckless driving. She was later released on bond.
The criminal defense attorney who handles this case will likely examine the woman’s home life to see if there’s a pattern of domestic abuse that may have contributed to her actions. While what she did was reckless, it was not done out of malice. She simply wanted to go home. What’s not clear is why she couldn’t wait until she had medical clearance to be released and took matters into her own hands. Her defense attorney will insist of getting straight answers to this question if his client hopes to get her charges reduced or dismissed.