Despite having been issued a driving ban by their doctor, more motorists are still getting behind the wheel.
Figures from the Danish Road Traffic Authority show that in 2025, there were 321 reports from doctors about patients not complying with their driving bans. In 2024, there were 269 reports.
This is reported by TV2 (https://nyheder.tv2.dk/trafik/2026-07-27-flere-indberettes-for-at-koere-bil-selvom-laegen-har-sagt-nej).
----------------------------------
What is a medical driving ban?
----------------------------------
A medical driving ban is an agreement between a doctor and a patient, made if the doctor assesses that the patient's health makes it unsafe for them to drive.
The driving ban is not legally binding, as only the Danish Road Traffic Authority and the police can revoke the right to drive, take a driving license, or impound a vehicle.
If the doctor assesses that the patient will not comply with the ban, or if the doctor discovers it is being violated, the doctor must, as a rule, report it to the Danish Patient Safety Authority.
If the Danish Patient Safety Authority assesses that the report meets the legal requirements, they contact the Danish Road Traffic Authority to initiate a case regarding the revocation of the driving license.
Source: sundhed.dk (https://www.sundhed.dk/sundhedsfaglig/laegehaandbogen/fysmed-og-rehab/undersoegelser/rehabilitering/koerselsforbud/)
The driving ban is not legally enforceable, which means the police cannot see if a motorist has been issued one. Now, FDM, the motorists' interest organization, is demanding a change.
"It is somewhat grotesque that when a doctor assesses that a motorist cannot drive safely, this is not communicated to the authorities who can monitor it, namely the police," says Torben Lund Kudsk, head of department at FDM, today on P1 Morgen (https://www.dr.dk/lyd/p1/p1-morgen/p1-morgen-2026/tirsdag-28-juli-2026-11802633312).
FDM therefore proposes that the police's automatic license plate readers should show if a motorist has a medical driving ban, and that doctors should be able to revoke a driving license, possibly with the Danish Road Traffic Authority providing a supplementary assessment.
In the summer of 2024, perhaps the most well-known example of an ignored driving ban occurred when a couple of parents were hit at 120 kilometers per hour, and both lost their lives in an accident in Randers. The driver of the car was a 56-year-old man who suffered from epilepsy and had been issued a driving ban after several seizures.
------------------------------------------
The doctor-patient relationship could be challenged
------------------------------------------
If the medical driving ban becomes visible to the police, Jakob Christensen, a senior physician and researcher in epilepsy at Aarhus University Hospital, fears it will challenge the relationship between doctor and patient.
"One must be a bit careful about breaking this doctor-patient relationship to see if you can catch some people who are not following their driving ban," he says today on P1 Morgen.
As a doctor, he has himself issued several medical driving bans and believes that the vast majority of patients follow them. Therefore, the rules proposed by FDM could affect the patients who comply with the ban.
"I think it is a great cost for a lot of law-abiding citizens who follow the medical advice and recommendation we give them, and now they will have information about their illness lying around the entire country and have to explain why they have that driving ban," he says.
Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.