2009 Iowa Code
Title 8 - Transportation
Subtitle 2 - Vehicles
CHAPTER 321 - MOTOR VEHICLES AND LAW OF THE ROAD
321.186 - EXAMINATION OF NEW OR INCOMPETENT OPERATORS.

        321.186  EXAMINATION OF NEW OR INCOMPETENT
      OPERATORS.
         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.
      The department shall make every effort to have an examiner conduct
      the commercial driver's license driving skills tests at other
      locations in this state where skills may be adequately tested when
      requested by a person representing ten or more drivers requiring
      driving skills testing.
         2.  The department shall make every effort to accommodate a
      commercial driver's license applicant's need to arrange an
      appointment for a driving skills test at an established test site
      other than where the applicant passed the required knowledge test.
      The department shall report to the governor and the general assembly
      on any problems, extraordinary costs, and recommendations regarding
      the appointment scheduling process.
         3.  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 other
      than a commercial 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.
         4.  A physician licensed under chapter 148 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 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 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 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 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.  

         Section History: Early Form

         [C31, 35, § 4960-d14; C39, § 5013.12; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66,
      71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 321.186] 

         Section History: Recent Form

         90 Acts, ch 1230, § 31; 92 Acts, ch 1175, § 32; 98 Acts, ch 1029,
      §1; 98 Acts, ch 1073, §9; 99 Acts, ch 181, §16; 2002 Acts, ch 1032,
      §1; 2008 Acts, ch 1088, §119
         Referred to in § 321.180, 321.180A, 321.180B