Our daughter, who has cancer, entered end-of-life care on Christmas Eve. I am a carer for her and her two young children.
We both live in rural villages with no public transport options, so I need a car to get to her at short notice, but last summer, out of the blue, the DVLA told me I could not drive until December and revoked my licence.
It has not returned it and, as a consequence, I was unable to get there in time to babysit so her husband could accompany her on two late-night trips to A&E.
I am about to lose my daughter and I worry about being able to be with her when she dies, or to care fully for her children when she is no longer here.
Name and address withheld
Words are inadequate for your situation. The background to your plight is a fall last June that caused a minor head injury. Your hospital consultant wrote in your discharge notes that you should desist from driving for two weeks, and advised you to inform the DVLA. You complied.
The DVLA confirmed over the phone that you could drive again once the fortnight was up, and asked you to submit a medical form along with the discharge notes. In due course, you resumed driving without incident.
Two months later you received a letter from the DVLA ordering you to stop driving immediately until early December. It insisted you return your licence, and refused to explain what information had prompted the decision.
You reapplied for your licence in October, as instructed by the DVLA, so it would be ready in time, but December came and went. Since then you have pleaded in vain for updates. The DVLA knows your terrible circumstances, but it has merely repeated that your application is being processed.
I contacted the agency as soon as I read your message. You were called the next day and told that you can now drive. Your daughter died three days later with you at her side.
I asked the DVLA what medical evidence had informed the decision to ban you from driving; why, if you were deemed unfit to drive, it waited two months to take action, and why the delay in reissuing your licence. Given how many complaints I receive from drivers left in limbo because of similar delays, I also asked if there was a backlog.
The DVLA answered none of these questions. It merely stated that it assesses medical declarations from drivers and takes appropriate action. It says applications can be delayed if information is outstanding, although you were never informed this was the case, and tells me it is introducing a new system that should provide “significant improvements” to drivers with medical conditions.
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