I lost my right leg in a motorbike accident 8 years ago. This was declared to DVLA and initially, I had a restriction on my licence to use hand controls. This was later removed and I now have no restrictions driving manual using a prosthetic on my right leg, though my day to day car is an automatic ATM.
We have a 4.25T 8-metre motorhome, also automatic` which we are looking to change to one >7.5T (again automatic). This clearly means getting a C licence and hence a D4 medical. Ideally I’ll do this in an automatic though the licence would be for both manual and automatic as I already have a manual licence.
I’m in my 50s and will pass the medical easily, but am unsure what the impact of the amputation is. It is likely the doctor will not notice (I only have a slight limp) and the amputation was already declared to the DVLA.
Is this something I should point out, or given I have already declared it, is it not my problem if he doesn’t ask?
Your leg is nothing to do with the medical as long as you can pass the rest you should fine,I lost both my legs above knee and I have kept mine . Good luck
You can read through the D4 they have to fill out before you go for your medical so just have a look through and see if there’s anything where it has to be put down.
They will ask you questions as you do the medical but as I said they’re all in the form you give them to complete so have a look before you go. I had to tell them about my spinal op I’d had 11 months previously.
Thanks all. The wording on the form is “Any persisting limb condition which needs driving to be restricted to certain types of vehicles or those with adapted controls.”
Well I definitely do have a persisting limb condition
but it doesn’t restrict me from driving a standard manual or auto so all good.
There is class 1 driver with an amputation drives a fridge for Overlands although not seen him for a few months now but he also used a walking stick think it is his left leg mind so shouldn’t be a problem be might be worth a mention at your medical just in case
IIRC there is aisles a driver in Southhampton dock who is an amputee so can be done
Know a lad who has 1 arm & rides a motorbike ( had accident on him bike a number of years ago had to take another test after he got his false arm ( his words btw & yep have helped him remove it not light either & put back on )
After finally receiving my licence from DVLA I took training with 2start training 2start-training.com/ in Southampton and passed cat C this morning at the 1st attempt with 2 minors.
Adding some information here in case another leg amputee finds this thread in the future. My plan was to drive the test using only my left (real) leg as the feeling through that is obviously better than through a prosthetic, and given I knew I would be nervous my driving would be smoother.
I was stopped by the examiner ten minutes from the end of the test, having driven with my left leg until then and asked how I drove a manual, to which I replied using both legs. He then made me aware that he needed to see me drive with my right leg, or would have to treat the test as a disability test, which would not only result in my licence being restricted to autos for LGV, but I would also loose my entitlement to drive a manual car. To say this was a bit of a shock was an understatement as I had specifically queried this with the training company on multiple occasions.
I do have to take my hat off to the examiner who dealt with the situation admirably, stating that in his 17 years examining LGVs I was the first leg amputee he had come across.
So if you’re a (right) leg amputee and reading this be aware you need to be able to demonstrate driving with the prosthetic for at least part of the test.
