60-4,118. Vision requirements; persons with physical impairments; physical or mental incompetence; prohibited act; penalty.

(1)(a) No operator's license shall be granted to any applicant until such applicant satisfies the examiner that he or she possesses sufficient powers of eyesight to enable him or her to obtain a Class O license and to operate a motor vehicle on the highways of this state with a reasonable degree of safety, including:

(i) A minimum acuity level of vision. Such level may be obtained through the use of standard eyeglasses, contact lenses, or bioptic or telescopic lenses which are specially constructed vision correction devices which include a lens system attached to or used in conjunction with a carrier lens; and

(ii) A minimum field of vision. Such field of vision may be obtained through standard eyeglasses, contact lenses, or the carrier lens of the bioptic or telescopic lenses.

(b) The department may adopt and promulgate rules and regulations specifying such requirements.

(2) If a vision aid is used by the applicant to meet the vision requirements of this section, the operator's license of the applicant shall be restricted to the use of such vision aid when operating the motor vehicle. If the applicant fails to meet the vision requirements, the examiner shall require the applicant to present an optometrist's or ophthalmologist's statement certifying the vision reading obtained when testing the applicant within ninety days of the applicant's license examination. If the vision reading meets the vision requirements prescribed by the department, the vision requirements of this section shall have been met. If the vision reading demonstrates that the applicant is required to use bioptic or telescopic lenses to operate a motor vehicle, the statement from the optometrist or ophthalmologist shall also indicate when the applicant needs to be reexamined for purposes of meeting the vision requirements for an operator's license as prescribed by the department. If such time period is two years or more after the date of the application, the license shall be valid for two years. If such time period is less than two years, the license shall be valid for such time period.

(3) If the applicant for an operator's license discloses that he or she has any other physical impairment which may affect the safety of operation by such applicant of a motor vehicle, the examiner shall require the applicant to show cause why such license should be granted and, through such personal examination and demonstration as may be prescribed by the director, to show the necessary ability to safely operate a motor vehicle on the highways. If the examiner is then satisfied that such applicant has the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle, an operator's license may be issued to the applicant subject, at the discretion of the director, to a limitation to operate only such motor vehicles at such time, for such purpose, and within such area as the license shall designate.

(4)(a) The director may, when requested by a law enforcement officer, when the director has reason to believe that a person may be physically or mentally incompetent to operate a motor vehicle, or when a person's driving record appears to the department to justify an examination, give notice to the person to appear before an examiner or a designee of the director for examination concerning the person's ability to operate a motor vehicle safely. Any such request by a law enforcement officer shall be accompanied by written justification for such request and shall be approved by a supervisory law enforcement officer, police chief, or county sheriff.

(b) A refusal to appear before an examiner or a designee of the director for an examination after notice to do so shall be unlawful and shall result in the immediate cancellation of the person's operator's license by the director.

(c) If the person cannot qualify at the examination by an examiner, his or her operator's license shall be immediately surrendered to the examiner and forwarded to the director who shall cancel the person's operator's license.

(d) If the director determines that the person lacks the physical or mental ability to operate a motor vehicle, the director shall notify the person in writing of the decision. Upon receipt of the notice, the person shall immediately surrender his or her operator's license to the director who shall cancel the person's operator's license.

(e) Refusal to surrender an operator's license on demand shall be unlawful, and any person failing to surrender his or her operator's license as required by this subsection shall be guilty of a Class III misdemeanor.

Source

Annotations

The contributory negligence of a minor driver under this section may be imputed to a parent accompanying, directly supervising, and controlling the minor in the operation of a vehicle. Boker v. Luebbe, 198 Neb. 282, 252 N.W.2d 297 (1977).

Operation of motor vehicle by minor under sixteen years of age was not within coverage of omnibus clause of insurance policy. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Kersey, 171 Neb. 212, 106 N.W.2d 31 (1960).

Legislature has recognized the use of the automobile by school children as a common means of transportation. School Dist. No. 228 v. State Board of Education, 164 Neb. 148, 82 N.W.2d 8 (1957).

Minimum age fixed by law for driving automobiles, within meaning of the exclusionary clause of insurance policy, is fourteen years. Hertzel v. Western Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 143 Neb. 19, 8 N.W.2d 313 (1943).

Inspection stations and garages are not required to inspect motor vehicles without compensation. Beisner v. Cochran, 138 Neb. 445, 293 N.W. 289 (1940).

Provision limiting right to operate motor vehicles to persons of sixteen years or over, and denying it to persons under sixteen, is not arbitrary or unreasonable, and is not deprivation of property without due process. State ex rel. Oleson v. Graunke, 119 Neb. 440, 229 N.W. 329 (1930).