Iowa Code 321.186 – Examination of new or incompetent operators
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1. The department may examine every new applicant for a driver‘s license or any person holding a valid driver’s license when the department has reason to believe that the person may be physically or mentally incompetent to operate a motor vehicle, or whose driving record appears to the department to justify the examination. The department shall make every effort to accommodate a functionally illiterate applicant when the applicant is taking a knowledge test.
Terms Used In Iowa Code 321.186
- Condition: means a general problem that may be attributable to a defect in more than one part. See Iowa Code 322G.2
- Department: means the state department of transportation. See Iowa Code 321H.2
- Driver: means a person who operates a motor vehicle for the transportation of railroad workers in the motor vehicle on behalf of a railroad worker transportation company, whether the person is employed by the company for wages or drives for the company as an independent contractor. See Iowa Code 327F.39
- highway: means the entire width between property lines of every way or place of whatever nature when any part thereof is open to the use of the public, as a matter of right, for purposes of vehicular travel, except in public areas in which the boundary shall be thirty-three feet each side of the center line of the roadway. See Iowa Code 321I.1
- Motor vehicle: means a self-propelled vehicle purchased or leased in this state, except as provided in section 322G. See Iowa Code 322G.2
- Operate: means to ride in or on, other than as a passenger, use, or control the operation of an all-terrain vehicle in any manner, whether or not the all-terrain vehicle is moving. See Iowa Code 321I.1
- Person: includes any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, joint adventure, or association, and the plural as well as the singular number. See Iowa Code 321H.2
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Vehicle: means any vehicle as defined in chapter 321. See Iowa Code 321H.2
2. The examination shall include a screening of the applicant’s eyesight, a test of the applicant’s ability to read and understand highway signs regulating, warning, and directing traffic, a test of the applicant’s knowledge of the traffic laws of this state, an actual demonstration of ability to exercise ordinary and reasonable control in the operation of a motor vehicle, and other physical and mental examinations as the department finds necessary to determine the applicant’s fitness to operate a motor vehicle safely upon the highways. However, an applicant for a new driver’s license need not pass a vision test administered by the department if the applicant files with the department a vision report in accordance with section 321.186A which shows that the applicant’s visual acuity level meets or exceeds those required by the department.
3. A physician licensed under chapter 148, an advanced registered nurse practitioner licensed under chapter 152, a physician assistant licensed under chapter 148C, or an optometrist licensed under chapter 154 may report to the department the identity of a person who has been diagnosed as having a physical or mental condition which would render the person physically or mentally incompetent to operate a motor vehicle in a safe manner. The physician, advanced registered nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or optometrist shall make reasonable efforts to notify the person who is the subject of the report, in writing. The written notification shall state the nature of the disclosure and the reason for the disclosure. A physician, advanced registered nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or optometrist making a report under this section shall be immune from any liability, civil or criminal, which might otherwise be incurred or imposed as a result of the report. A physician, advanced registered nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or optometrist has no duty to make a report or to warn third parties with regard to any knowledge concerning a person’s mental or physical competency to operate a motor vehicle in a safe manner. Any report received by the department from a physician, advanced registered nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or optometrist under this section shall be kept confidential. Information regulated by chapter 141A shall be subject to the confidentiality provisions and remedies of that chapter.