Tom Ingram from BIG TOM Driving School expands on the need for driving instructors to take some responsibility for consequences
My family were having a pleasant enough day; a swim at the gym followed by a lunch out. As my wife is driving in the outer lane of a dual-carriageway a young lass to our left decides to swap lanes with no observations. I do literally mean no observations. I was sat in the rear of our car, on the nearside and had a perfect view of the drivers' head and eyes, and there was not even a right mirror check, let alone a 'chin to shoulder' to the right. The result is extensive damage (�6000+) to the entire nearside of our car. It could have been so much worse for all.
The first thing she says? "I'm really sorry about that, but I've only just passed my driving test". Quickly followed by "Is it alright if I phone my Mum?"
At some point, driving instructors have to start taking some responsibility for outcomes. As mentioned recently in this blog, the fact that newly qualified drivers represent such a risk to others after passing their driving test, that they are now being required to pay �4000 just to drive without the black box telematics is a sad sign of how things are in the driving training world.
The reasons are many and varied, I'm not pretending this is easy but at some point, driving instructors do need to start instructing to the DVSA driving standard.
How different today could have been. Thankfully we were in our Audi Q7, but in a smaller vehicle, such was the severe steer with which the young lass came out in to the other lane, the outcomes could have been much worse.
She adds to the statistic that 1 in 5 newly qualified drivers have an accident within a few hundred miles of taking their driving test. I can't tell you how hard it was for me not to ask who her driving instructor had been.
Tom Ingram provides payg driving training to trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464
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