Epilepsy and driving: a survey of automobile accidents attributed to seizure

From results of a survey of 72 epileptic car drivers who had a mean driving history of 8.6 years, 18 (25%) had experienced one or more automobile accidents ascribed to a seizure while driving, with the total number of accidents of the surveyed group amounting to 35. All the drivers were known to have partial epilepsy, 13 of them having temporal lobe epilepsy. The main characteristics of these 35 accidents were as follows: (1) Fifty-seven percent were caused by complex partial seizure without an aura in which consciousness was immediately impaired at onset, while about 10% were attributed to simple partial seizure in which the conscious state was not altered. No accident was caused by a first seizure; (2) Fifty-one percent occurred on an empty road with little pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic; (3) In about half the accidents, the driver's vehicle collided against an immovable object, and only 20% involved crashing into another car; (4) Most accidents caused damage to only the driver's car and/or mild physical injury; and (5) Fifty-four percent of the accidents were not reported to the police, and many that were reported were ascribed to driving while asleep, to careless driving or to similar behavior.