Hi all,

I just found out my license is suspended (ontario, canada) because a dr. reported me to the MTO. I’m absolutely furious about this because I’ve driven all my life (even professionally for many years as an OTR trucker, running all Canada & USA) and I’m accident free and don’t have a blemish on my drivers abstract...not even a speeding ticket or even a parking ticket for that matter!

I suspect it was my family dr. but don’t know for sure, yet. I remember him questioning me about driving last year once because he was concerned about my lack of range of motion with my neck and we talked about it some. I told him I had no problems viewing my mirrors and that I had even added those little convex mirrors to my side mirrors which help eliminate blind spots. He seemed to be very concerned about me having to back up in situations such as parking lots (think Walmart) but I assured him that I don’t have any problems and besides, as a trucker for many years I’m very used to and comfortable with relying on mirrors. Hell, even before I lost my range of motion in my neck I NEVER looked back over my shoulder to back-up, I’ve always relied on my mirrors for that. We ended this conversation by him suggesting that I do my best to avoid situations where I would have to back-up anywhere and I agreed that I would try to minimize that happening.

I wasn’t expecting this suspension at all and I’m not sure yet what I can do. It certainly has me in a very serious bind however because I own my own home in a very rural area and have no access to public transportation and very few neighbours, and none that I wish to be bothering for rides and grocery shopping and things like that!

I honestly am confident in stating that I am not a risk to others while driving but even with that I only ever make a couple trips a month to town anyhow, for running errands and medical appt’s and such. I feel this is VERY unfair and don’t know what I can do if I can’t get my license back. This is such a shock to me and was so completely unexpected.

Has anyone else had a similar problem and if so, how have you dealt with it? In Ontario, as far as I know, there is no requirement that one must be able to turn their head enough to be able to look over their shoulder. How could they require that anyways? Think of all the delivery vehicles and trucks and other such vehicles where you can ONLY use your mirrors! Also, they don’t require people wearing neck braces to refrain from driving...do they? Damn this gift of AS just keeps giving and giving :-(