Suggesting that training should be required within a year of passing the test is also too late. Crash statistics show that the worst period for young driver casualties is concentrated in the very first few months after the test. By the end of the first year new drivers have already significantly reduced their crash rate by themselves without any further training.

So how can we say that a vital need for better safety training can be left until post-test? Any skills which could achieve “outstanding results” must surely be implemented pre-test. Also, since these crashes involve a lot of other road users, there is an even stronger case for these skills to be included in the test and examined on a pass-or-fail basis.

Therefore it is incorrect to say that high casualties “…graphically highlights the need for legislation that insists on post-test training…”. In fact, the need is clearly to improve pre-test training and the test itself.

Not just young drivers at risk – but all “new” drivers
Young drivers are often stated as a statistic when it comes to casualties, however the issue it much is wider than ‘young’ drivers alone. Data from the Cohort II study in 2008 showed that ‘New’ drivers of all ages have a high crash risk immediately after passing the test, which is only slightly reduced with the age of the new driver [2].

If ‘learning-to-drive’ is seen as a process, the failure point is clearly the test standard. Passing the test moves drivers from a very safe category (Learner) instantly to the most dangerous (novice). No business would be allowed to tolerate such a dangerous process, so why do we allow our young drivers to take to the road without the skills required to make them safer?

Increased focus on post-test training is always welcome. But the best contribution, especially for young drivers, would be to acknowledge that the current test standard is creating unsafe drivers. The DfT must stop denying Learners the safety skills we all know they need. This is the unacceptable killer.

Advanced-Driving.co.uk calls on Mike Penning MP to undertake an urgent review of Learner training and testing, so that passing the test is not such a dangerous event.

[1] http://www.iam.org.uk/latest_news/newcalltoprotectyoungerdrivers.html

[2] Road Safety Research Report No. 87, Learning to Drive: The Evidence”, DfT, May 2008, p16

The article opens with: “Another title for this article could have been, “Friends Killing Each Other”. It is about peer pressure on young drivers – how it works, the effect and how to overcome it”.

See what you think. I believe that, for both adults and youngsters, this article contains a lot of very practical help in a vital area of driving.

The full article can be downloaded from this link: Peer Pressure – Driving Under the Influence by Stephen Haley

Abstract:

Young drivers still have about five times the death rate of other drivers, and a strong influence in raising their risk is peer pressure.

At the root of the problem, adolescents feel a strong need to impress their peers. And this obsession is a weakness in making their own decisions. Peer pressure is anchored in a subconscious belief that, “I must do what my peers want and expect”. But trying to impress rarely has the intended effect – especially with reckless driving.

The motives of people who apply this pressure are explained, especially that it is a form of exercising control. Also set out are the reasons why peer pressure is so strong for adolescents in particular.

A separate section, written more directly to young people themselves, offers Twenty Tips for handling peer pressure. These include how to prepare for it in advance, and how to make it less likely to happen.

Importantly, it is not inevitable that peer pressure will make young drivers more dangerous. With the right help, they could handle it.

Lowering speed limits is an easy but ill-conceived and ultimately ineffective solution to tackling casualties. The wrong thinking also has no end. Why 50mph? Why not 40mph, or even 30mph?

The authorities know that most casualties occur below the posted speed limit on a given road. Trying to reduce casualties with speed limits alone would, therefore, need them to be set and rigidly enforced at levels that interfere with reasonable mobility.

Official figures also show that ‘exceeding the speed limit’ is reported by the Police as a contributing factor in only 7% of accidents for drivers aged 17-19, and less than 2% for drivers aged over 25 who form the majority of road-users (1).

Declaring more of our safe driving to be illegal is a weak and unthinking step for genuine road safety.

There is considerable concern over the ongoing proliferation of the Speed Kills campaign. This policy is continuing to create a population of drivers who do not know how to determine what a safe speed is for a given road or situation.

For more than a decade, Speed Kills has been teaching people, including millions of new drivers, that just keeping to the speed limit will keep them safe. This is a dangerous form of ‘zombie’ driving, meaning people focus much more on their speedometer as an indicator for safety, rather than the real hazards going on around them.

Advanced-Driving.co.uk is passionate about good safe driving, and believes that setting speed limits too low works against safety. It causes frustration in the average, responsible driver and focuses the driver’s mind on an arbitrary number (the limit) rather than encouraging good judgement of the speed which is safe for the conditions.

Sometimes even 30mph can be too fast for a rural road, whereas 60mph may be appropriate if the conditions are right for that road. Safety will always depend more on the circumstances than the posted limit.

The Government should be providing better driver training to stop the decline in driving ability. There are simple and teachable skills that would make drivers more aware of risk, give better control of hazards and improve the ability to select a correct and safe speed, yet these skills are not being taught.

It is also not only ‘young drivers’ who are let down by their training and the over-emphasis on speed. Crash figures show that ALL ‘new drivers’ irrespective of age have high crash rates – until they start to overcome for themselves the shortcomings in what they have been taught. Clearly, new drivers improve with experience, but this should not excuse inadequate training for learner drivers from day one (2).

Advanced-Driving.co.uk calls on the Government to abandon the simplistic and distracting focus on ‘speed’, and use the next decade to concentrate on tackling the fundamental failures in driver training to really improve road safety in the UK.

References:
1) DFT Road Safety Research Report No.87 Learning to Drive: The Evidence. Figure 5.5: Proportion of drivers in accidents with factors attributable to the driver, by age group of driver, 2006

2) DFT Road Safety Research Report No.87 Learning to Drive: The Evidence. Figure 1.1: The effects of age (maturation) and experience on accident liability

With its strong links to performance Car Clubs and driver training initiatives, Adrian Flux have teamed up with Advanced Driving UK and for those that have taken the step to improve their driving be rewarded for doing so.

Anyone completing a recognised course organised by RoSPA / IAM / Ride-Drive or any of the other recognised providers can claim at least 20% discount off their renewal premiums through Adrian Flux. Note that this is off the renewal and not the best premium to be found, meaning once you complete a course – you will receive a discount over and above what you currently pay in car insurance!

For those that complete other courses we do also acknowledge the steps you have taken to become a better driver and are also able to offer a significant discount in recognition. This will be up to 15% off your premium.

Flux have stated, “What initially attracted us to Advanced-Driving UK was the refreshing outlook it took to those persons looking to further their driving skills and a fresh new way of looking at road safety.’

Upon completing a course, please contact Adrian Flux on Freephone: 0800 505 3000 (Office hours 9:00 – 7:00 Mon – Fri, Sat: 9:00 – 4:00) and mention your advanced driving course or visit Adrian Flux

Ideally, if there is severe risk of flood, then stay at home but if you must travel and a journey is unavoidable then here are some tips to help you out.

1. Torrential rain brings with it visibility problems as the car mists up in seconds. Consider how you may use your air conditioning where visibility is an issue due to misting is a problem. Air con not only keeps you cool, but it removes moisture from the car to reduce window mist.

2. Its useful to know where the air intake is on your car. It’s not always possible to find out quickly, the lower it is on your car – the more likely water will get into the engine – needless to say, this is seriously bad news!

3.  Don’t go in if the water’s obviously too deep or flowing too quickly: consider an alternative route. It can take as little as 2 feet of flowing water to float a vehicle and wash it away, and even less for you to loose traction.

4.  If you have to drive through water try to drive in the highest section (only if you know where it is! don’t forget you may not be able to tell…)

5.  Drive only fast enough to create a small bow wave in front of the vehicle – driving at speed may be dangerous to other vehicles or pedestrians. Entering at speed may also mean you lose traction quickly and aqua-plain which won’t help you to get across.

6.  Keep going once you have started – make sure you have a clear run, put the car into first gear before entering the water, keep the revs high and set off.  Don’t go in if you can’t see a way out on the other side or another vehicle is blocking the exit – you don’t want water to enter the exhaust.

7.  Do not take your foot even slightly off the accelerator, as this will allow water to travel up the exhaust pipe. As you go through the water, slip the clutch if you can. After you come out, dry brakes gently before you need them – the best way is to lightly apply the brake as you drive along for a few seconds.

8.  At the other side, keep moving and continue to rev the engine to clear any water from the exhaust.

In the past during flood conditions people have been stranded over night. So if you must go out also ensure you have the some of the essentials in your car. Water, food, blankets, warm clothes, a torch, a mobile phone and something to read – you could be in one place, for a long time!

BlatSafe is an introduction to skills such as good observation, planning and anticipation which can be practiced each time we drive, ultimately leading to a smoother flowing and more rewarding drive. The BlatSafe DVD covers subjects such as:

- Attitude
- Preparation of yourself and your car
- Smooth car control including acceleration sense
- Observation and anticipation
- The limit point and extending your view through visual links
- Cornering
- Road positioning
- Overtaking
- The use of commentary

Neil Greig, Director of Research and Policy at the IAM, said: “Young people don’t tend to drive as frequently or as far as the average driver, and they have also grown up in a surveillance society, which could explain why they show less objection to safety cameras – older people are more likely to resent being monitored in this way. With this survey we now have 10 years worth of motoring opinion on the most contentious issue on the roads today.

The study also found that women have been consistently more supportive of safety cameras than men, although this support has fluctuated over the years. Support from men has declined from 83 per cent in 2002 to 66 per cent in 2009. “On average, women commit fewer traffic offences than men, so they may see cameras as less of a threat” said Mr Greig.

Very high mileage drivers (those driving over 20 thousand miles a year) were shown to be the least supportive of safety cameras. Mr Greig said: “20,000 miles is an unusually high distance to cover in a year, so the driver would typically be driving on business. Time is money for these drivers, they are more likely to be in a rush so more likely to get caught by safety cameras or be late because of them. They may blame the cameras for being late, rather than their unrealistic schedules”

The data, collected over 10 years, includes opinions on developments in safety camera policy and operations and acceptability of safety cameras.

Safety cameras had a 75% approval rating in 2009, compared with a 92% approval rating in 1999. “Support has declined gradually but consistently over the last 10 years, but overall speed cameras have maintained a good level of approval among the motoring public” added Mr Greig.

“However the firm belief remains that safety cameras are primarily for raising revenue. Until that link is broken it will remain very difficult to convince all drivers that safety cameras really do deliver fewer deaths and serious injuries”

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

Jackie Willis, a driving instructor and founder/director of Care Motoring, a Norfolk-based driving school, has come up with an innovative new way to help learner drivers beat the credit crunch by learning to drive with the help of a parent, or other qualified driver, together with a series of audio lessons, delivered by Jackie and called Virtual Driving Instructor.

“Many learner drivers have either put off learning to drive altogether, or are taking lessons with a driving instructor, but can only afford to pay for them once every 2 or 3 weeks, sometimes longer. If they are lucky, they will have the chance to practise in between, but sadly many do not,” said Jackie

According to a recent survey from an insurance company, applications to have learner drivers added to parents’ policies has increased by around 23% and it is this group of learner drivers that Virtual Driving Instructor is targeting. A survey by Churchill insurance in 2007 showed how much damage can actually be done when parents attempt to teach their children.

Virtual Driving Instructor takes away the responsibility of what to teach and how to teach it from the unqualified instructor, by ‘instructing’ the learner through these audio lessons. Jackie explains:

“The parent, or other supervising driver, and the learner, listen together before going off and practising, as instructed in the audio lesson. They then stop again after this practise and listen for further advice. And of course, if the instructions have not been fully understood first time, then the audio can be rewound and listened to again”.

Certainly the lessons seem to be very thorough. There are 25 in all, which includes 5 manoeuvres lessons, and each lesson is accompanied by a set of lesson notes to help the supervising driver. Each lesson contains the instructions for the skill being practised, encouragement for the learner to assess their own progress and set their own targets for improvement, risk management techniques, Highway Code references relevant to that lesson, and links to various websites for additional help and information, as well as recommended reading material.

As Jackie, an experienced teacher and classroom practitioner, points out, whatever a person is learning, success is achieved quickest and best when the subject can be learned through visual, auditory and kinaesthetic means. So, in the case of learning to drive, watching training videos and good role-model drivers, coupled with listening regularly to the audio lessons and getting as much driving practice as possible, will lead to accelerated learning which is of a much higher standard.

It is also recommended that the learner backs up this ‘diy’ training with some lessons with a ‘real’ driving instructor, who may then be able to focus their training on higher level skills, producing novice drivers who possess advanced driving skills as soon as they obtain their driving licence.

Now wouldn’t that be a novel idea?

Download and purchase information can be found at Virtual Instructor

This was to have been an article about the false beliefs that live in the minds of young people and obstruct their path to safe driving. But that will have to wait a while.

Discussion with instructors and drivers has brought to the surface one single belief that casts such a long shadow that it merits separate attention. Especially now, as the Driving Standards Agency is considering major reforms in driver training. This belief has been uttered by so many people for so long that it seems to just exist. Surprisingly though, its damaging effect comes not from it being false, but because it is so true.

The Stubborn Truth
It is of course, the relentless old adage, “You really learn to drive after passing the test”. This saying has been nestling deep in our driving culture for so many decades that we no longer see it as a nonsense and a verdict of failure. Instead, it just sits heavy as a lead weight astride the process of learning to drive.

But why do people say it anyway? There are two main ‘proofs’ in the public mind. First, novice drivers have a notorious and persistently high crash rate. And by definition, if we are unhappy with the carnage, then drivers are not being well prepared for being set free on the roads. Second and much stronger, is that ‘test driving’ is so totally different from the ‘real-world driving’ that ambushes novices after passing the test.

So learners will often hear this maxim said. From their peers, friends and family – especially when having private practice. Instructors might also make comments that distinguish between driving before and after the test. But most powerful is the shock that novices get as they suddenly drive without supervision.

Unfortunately, none of the changes made to driver training over the years have managed to dent this Stubborn Truth. It persists as true today, and entrenched in the public mind, as it ever was.

From the viewpoint of the learners, we should expect them to feel confused. How can they accept that the act of passing the test has the effect of throwing them headlong into the highest risk category of driver? Why would anyone create a situation like that? Predictably, they prefer to imagine that crashes happen to drivers who choose to be deliberately reckless – this seems to make much more sense. But in reality, things go wrong across the full spectrum of novices – including the ones who want to be safe.

Let’s look at the effect that this maxim has on the learning process.

Consequences
Some recent research adds to our insight into the driving minds of young people, and especially how sceptical they are of the learning process (1) . We know that many believe that passing the test has little to do with actual competence, and a lot of their thinking is a vivid reflection of the Stubborn Truth:

• Learning to drive is about passing the test - “The test is an obstacle to being allowed to drive, so I want to get through it as soon as possible.”
• Preparing for the test does not teach ‘real’ driving – “Apparently I have to pick that up afterwards, and just hope not to crash in the process.”
• Pre-test training is irrelevant to good driving - “After the test I can forget the unnecessary things and drive how I think it should be done.”
• Driving ability is a matter of ‘natural talent’ - “If this is all they teach, then the rest must be down to whether you’ve just got the talent or not.”
• Passing the test has a lot to do with luck – “I want to try the test as soon as I have a chance of scraping through, and hope nothing tricky happens on the day.”
• Crashes are inevitable – “We’re bound to make mistakes with so much more to learn after the test.”

Alongside the clear implications for safety, there are broader consequences in this picture too:

• There are strong signals that many new drivers, especially young males, quickly feel they know more about driving than the system that taught them. This is a critical condition, but not surprising.
• There is a bias against instructors who want to raise the game. Trying to lift a pupil above being able to just pass the test can be akin to defying gravity. There might also be accusations of ‘unnecessary’ lessons. Many instructors bow to the pressure for a quick pass, simply to keep the client happy.
• For most people, the Stubborn Truth is a major part of the reputation of the driving instructor industry, and it works to undermine the value that they feel is being provided.
• Any negative views that new drivers hold about their pre-test training are likely to also rub off onto their respect for road safety more generally. For most of them it all comes from the same source. And a lack of faith and trust is natural if the training system is failing to deliver what it should.

Realistically, new drivers will always have a lot to learn from their experience after the test. But the problem lies in the scale of what is left untaught. This huge vacuum also gives grounds for the ‘talent model’ of good driving to arise, which denies the role of training, but will continue to thrive until it is proved to be wrong.

All of this means that if the magnitude of novice casualties is unacceptable, then in the same breath so too must be the existence of the Stubborn Truth and its consequences.

What are novices learning?
A strong image of new drivers taking to the road is that they are more likely to crash than the rest of us. But something very successful happens there too.

Their risk of crashing falls very sharply during the initial two years of driving (2) , and this raises a vital question. How do they do that? What exactly are they learning by themselves that makes this happen? Asking them does not help much. Even experienced drivers struggle to explain what is really going on when they drive, so it is impractical to expect sparkling insights from our novices.

Let’s look first at some common assumptions that are actually not responsible for this effect:

• Just experience:  We have a long tradition of saying that novices simply ‘gain experience’. This lets us hide behind the dubious claim that, “You can’t teach experience”. There may be some comfort in keeping the responsibility weighted towards the novice, but complaining at them while leaving them stranded helps no one. And ‘gaining experience’ is too vague to have any meaning.
• Better car control:  The weight given to physical control for the test can give the impression that this must be the thing to continue improving afterwards, but this is not the answer. Most learners master vehicle control quite easily to the level required for public roads, and novices do not start avoiding crashes with extreme physical actions. This is also not how experienced drivers stay safe either.
• Motorways, darkness and bad weather:  There are advocates of rolling into the pre-test stage what are effectively some of the Pass Plus modules – motorways, driving in the dark and driving in poor conditions. However, official studies have found a lack of evidence that Pass Plus reduces a driver’s crash risk  (3). It seems unlikely therefore that gaining this sort of experience on their own could result in a sharp increase in novice safety.
• Better attitudes and behaviour:  A definite surprise in recent research is that key behaviours get slightly but steadily worse during the first three years of driving  (4). This is about specific ‘driving violations’ and ‘hazard involvement’ that have been linked to crash liability. Clearly, these behaviours are vital to safety, but improving them is not a route that novices are using to help themselves.

So what are novices doing? The answer is that by being forced to think for themselves, they are beginning to manage risk. With the safety net of a supervising driver being suddenly removed, the brain gets quite a jolt. Decisions are now truly life-and-death events, and a deep instinct kicks in to cope with the new danger.

Linking with the debate on frontal lobe development, we could even say that novices are beginning to exercise and develop this vital area of brain function – and perhaps after years of under-use in childhood.

In some chaotic fashion specific skills are being gained which are about hazard control – making risk safe. And this is how novices achieve the falling crash curve. Crucially, though, this area of competence on the road is currently neglected in learner training, and this is the core weakness that creates the casualties.

Reform of driver training
Declaring the Stubborn Truth to be unacceptable is long overdue. As well as being a severe criticism of our training regime, it is in itself an active barrier to raising standards. The expectation of weak training leads people to behave in ways that also cause it to come true, such as treating the test as just an obstacle.

It is worth noting too that the idea of placing restrictions on novice drivers (on passengers, night driving, etc), would serve to reinforce the maxim, and appear to mark an unhelpful surrender to poor training.

How could this barrier be removed? The obvious answer is to start teaching learners what the novices are picking up on their own. And this is no longer as difficult as it was before, because the problem and the solution are now better understood. The hurdle today is in making the decision to update the training.

From the new driver’s perspective, we should recognise that:

• They have a deep sense themselves that ‘something important’ is missing from their training. But they struggle to explain what they mean by ‘real driving’ or to define ‘good driving’. This is precisely what they have not been told about, and they rightly expect the trainers to have the answers.
• Novices get no meaningful guidance about their period of self-learning after the test – what it should contain or how to do it. This ensures a process of experimental trial-and-error.
• The ‘real world’ post-test experience should be a smooth continuation of their test preparation. The feeling that going solo involves a daunting disconnection is a critical symptom.
• When pupils blame failing the test on bad luck and factors beyond their control, it shows that they cannot imagine how to take more responsibility for the result. And this is because they have not been given the skills that would let them do so.
• Young people have a genuine appetite for learning how things really work. It captivates them in the task, and they normally welcome the opportunity. In driving, they want the real skills to be explained. The joy of learning is a natural and powerful energy of youth, unless we press it out of them.

Taking the training point of view, we must stop pretending, and realise that many of the key skills that experience builds can most definitely be taught. Introducing even three topics into pre-test tuition would dramatically reduce novice risk and the disconnection in post-test driving:

• Mental skills – explain why safety is mainly about using mental skills. Describe how these skills work alongside the traditional focus on vehicle control and the Highway Code to achieve real, good and safe driving. This extends far beyond proposals to introduce training on ‘attitude’.
• Risk management - teach the active control of danger. Use a realistic model of how risk behaves and can be controlled (such as the Speed, Surprise, Space model). The current Hazard Perception Test falls far short of this, but could be developed to make a much better connection to real driving. Using a practical structure for their thinking also simplifies the driver’s task and helps avoid overload.
• Learning from experience - teach pupils how to learn from their experience. This is a skill in its own right, and is readily teachable to improve the speed and usefulness of learning. Vitally, it places the mechanism for lifelong learning within the drivers themselves. Most drivers, of all ages, waste their experience by only learning (if at all) from obvious severe events, such as crashes or near-misses.

These are some of the critical ‘revelations’ that new drivers are struggling to work out for themselves in a stumbling voyage of discovery. But drivers should be using these tools and skills from the start, not trying to reinvent them. If they were properly taught, it is even possible that new drivers could be safer than the current average on the road. And that would really change the reputation of the training system!

In conclusion
Today, the most important thing about the Stubborn Truth is that it could be removed. It should no longer, therefore, be shrugged off or ignored out of discomfort or momentum. In the total strategy for road safety, this deep-seated maxim describes a cavernous hole below the waterline that really should be plugged. Along with the casualty figures, it stands as a clear beacon of failure.

It is time to take responsibility for what feeds this public perception, and to stop regarding it as inevitable. Genuinely breaking this belief sits at the heart of what we should set out to achieve.

Yes, it is a bold ambition, but a necessary and overdue one. And only by accepting the explicit objective will it stand a chance of getting done. The Driving Standards Agency must square up to this relic of history, and recognise the deadly omissions in training. The missing safety skills could be taught, and making a start should be an urgent aim as they define the new training syllabus.

Continuing to withhold the skills of safe driving is simply neglect. It is already illogical to blame novices as generally as we do for their crashes. Our anguish of not knowing what else to do no longer makes sense.

The industry’s vision of “Safe Driving for Life” is an unattainable mirage for as long as people continue to say, “You really learn to drive after passing the test”.

Stephen Haley runs The Skilldriver project and is author of the book “Mind Driving” and can be contacted at shaley@advanced-driving.co.uk

References

1. “The Good, the Bad and the Talented”, DfT Research Report 74, Jan 2007,
   “Young People’s Forum on Learning to Drive”, DSA/SHM, Jan 2008,
   “Feeling Safe, Itching to Drive”, DfT Research Report 86, May 2008
2. “Cohort II: A Study of Learner and New Drivers”, Vol 1, DfT Research Report 81, May 2008, p131-2
3. “Cohort II”, Vol 1, p110, and “Monitoring and evaluation of safety measures for new drivers”, TRL Report TRL525, 2002
4. “Cohort II”, Vol 1, p123-5

A PDF Copy of the article can be downloaded from: The Stubborn Truth

New data from the IAM Motoring Trust shows it takes an average five year old car a minute and a half for the engine to warm up and the most efficient way to warm it up is by driving it. Reversing out of a space when the car’s engine is cold uses around 20 to 25 times more petrol in the first few seconds than it does when warm. If you do this 10 to 12 times a week that adds up to a cost of about ?100 a year, not to mention the increased wear on the car’s engine.

Reverse parking is also usually safer and is advised in The Highway Code. Reversing into somewhere you can see (a parking bay) rather than reversing out into somewhere you can’t see (often a line of moving traffic) is much safer. It is also easier to control a car going forwards than backwards when it is first started, and attempting a potentially high risk manoeuvre such as reversing when you have just entered a car and are not concentrating fully, is more dangerous.

From a security point of view, reversing close to an object such as a wall can make it more difficult for thieves to gain access and, if you need to leave a parking space quickly for personal security reasons, driving forward provides you with better acceleration and improved vision.

Many drivers find it helpful to lower the left (nearside) mirror to provide a guide to your lateral position. Another option, where all the parking spaces run in parallel rows, is to line your car up with the space in front and reverse back in a straight line. This should automatically position you in the centre of the space – but do remember to look where you are going!

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

An 11 year licence endorsement is just one of the many consequences of a drink offence, although this isn’t widely known.    There is no foolproof way to check your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limit before you get behind the wheel, so the IAM’s message to motorists is: if you’re going to drink, don’t drive.  And if you are going to drive, don’t drink.

Previous surveys have shown a staggering 50 per cent of Britain’s 32 million motorists have owned up to driving after drinking alcohol.

“Just one” is often followed by another, especially if people are buying rounds of drinks. And a generous round-buyer may get you a large wine or a double measure of spirits without you realising. This may be a well-meaning gesture, but it could put you over the limit.

Your ability to drive can be affected by even a modest amount of alcohol, at any time of year. Even if you are actually within the limit, alcohol still affects your judgement.

If you’re driving abroad on a summer holiday, alcohol limits vary for each individual country, with some countries even having a zero alcohol limit. But the general rule to be safe no matter where you are driving remains: don’t drink and drive.

Why not offer to be the (non-drinking) designated driver?   You’ll save money and you’ll be popular with everyone else you’re giving a lift home to.

If you drive at twice the legal limit, you are 30 times more likely crash, and a long sleep or a large cup of coffee after drinking the night before may not be the quick fix you expected to allow you to safely get behind the wheel.

There could be sufficient alcohol in your system to still push you over the legal limit for many hours after you have stopped drinking. So remember to leave at least twelve hours between the “bottle” and the “throttle”.

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

Regardless of your choice of vehicle, there are techniques you can use to save fuel and at the same time minimise your impact on the environment. These techniques are part of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) course, which has delivered eco-benefits through fuel efficiency methods since the IAM was established in 1956.

Ask yourself: “Do I really need to drive?”: Short journeys that are generally less than two miles cause the most pollution and are inefficient in terms of fuel consumption. A straining cold engine will produce 60 per cent more pollution than a warm one. Walk or cycle where possible instead.

Plan your route: Take the most direct route and go at off-peak times if possible to save fuel and time. Sitting in congestion means you are often doing zero miles per litre. Consider car sharing, Park and Ride schemes or public transport.

Have your vehicle serviced regularly: Inefficient, under-serviced engines can reduce fuel economy by 10 per cent or more. Catalytic converters are environmentally friendly – but only if they are properly maintained.

Check your tyres: Correct tyre pressures reduce wear and helps fuel economy. Under-inflated tyres need replacing more often (itself an environmental problem) as well as being dangerous. Make a point of checking them at least once a week.

Obey the speed limits: Try to ‘feather’ the throttle when you reach your cruising speed. Doing 56mph uses 25 per cent less fuel than 70mph and a smoother driving style can bring significant fuel saving.

Reduce the drag factor: Remove roof racks and carriers when they’re not in use as well as unnecessary boot luggage and heavy accessories.

Driving with the window open and using air conditioning increases drag and lowers fuel economy, so use the vent settings instead.

Buy green fuel: And use less of it. If you get stuck in traffic, switch off the engine. Find out if you can buy low sulphur diesel (city diesel) or cleaner petrol (low sulphur/aromatics) locally.

Use “accelerator” sense: Save fuel by planning ahead and reading the traffic in advance to gently join a queue rather than braking suddenly as you hit traffic.

Reverse when you park: The engine will be cold and at its most fuel inefficient when you start it. If you can drive away without having to reverse when the engine is cold, you will save fuel and have better
visibility.

Watch your levels: If you fill your fuel tank up to the brim, you may be carrying around additional fuel which in turn means that you have more weight on board than is necessary and this will itself reduce fuel efficiency.

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

The A pillar is the engineering term for the area dividing the windscreen and the windows. In recent years the A pillars have become sturdier in a bid to improve the structure of the car as a whole.

In response, car designers have made them thicker. But the A pillar has created a blind spot which campaigners have pointed out obstructs the vision of thousands of drivers.

A study commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) from the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) found that, while the A pillar can obscure vision, there is rarely only one factor that contributes to an accident.

The study therefore found that there was not enough evidence to suggest that changes to current legislation regarding A pillar design would be of benefit. That means the onus is on drivers to cater for possible A pillar restriction. So what should we do?

More than 90 per cent of the information from the car’s external environment is viewed by the driver through the windscreen and windows. So, firstly, you should be aware of the potential restriction the A pillar may cause in your ability to scan the road ahead.

It is vital to check that nothing is hidden from view by the A pillar before making a manoeuvre. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are easy to “lose” in the space behind a pillar. Make sure you take time to look around the pillar, not just take a quick “snap-shot” look which could allow a cyclist to be hidden from view.

As you are driving in a straight line in approach to a junction, look further ahead, and scan to the left and right on your approach. That way you will see things through the windscreens before they become “lost” behind the pillars.

Remember – good, all round vision is vital. The onus is on you, as the driver, to see what is there.

More information about the DfT study Click here <http://www.dft.gov.uk/rmd/project.asp?intProjectID=11835>

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

Unfortunately, some drivers over-react to emergency service vehicles travelling on “blues and twos” (blue lights and two-tone horns). This is often because they don’t hear or see the emergency vehicle until it’s too close, and then take drastic action to get out of the way.

The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) says that good driving practice will alert you early to emergency vehicles: regular mirror checks (side and rear) for example, and keeping the windows slightly down around town, so you can hear sirens approaching.

Don’t panic and just brake. It’s natural to want to react. But instinctively putting your brakes on immediately in front of an emergency vehicle doesn’t help: it slows the progress of the emergency vehicle and jeopardises other road users.

Think about where you are on the road. You should deal with the problem in the same way that you deal with any other potentially hazardous driving situation. What is the safest option available to you?

Don’t cross red traffic lights or speed to get out of the way. The emergency driver has training and legal exemptions that you don’t have. Bus lanes and box junctions can be problems too, but let them resolve the problem of breaking the rules – not you.

If you are moving it may well be that you can continue at a reasonable pace and the emergency vehicle can follow you out of a pocket of congestion (such as a blocked one way system). In that scenario, attempting to pull over too soon, or slow down, might just cause a needless obstruction and so hamper the progress of the emergency vehicle.

Indicate your intentions clearly Don’t pull in opposite other obstructions, such as centre bollards. If you are thinking about pulling over across an entrance to a school or factory, you may be unwittingly preventing the emergency vehicle reaching its destination. And do think about where you are asking the emergency driver to overtake you – on the brow of a hill or a blind bend can be placing him or her in a very difficult position.

Get out of the way as soon as you can do so in safety.

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

Remember too that some cyclists, particularly younger ones, have never driven a car, and so don’t recognise the problems that they can cause car drivers. In an accident involving a car and a cyclist, whoever is to blame the cyclist will always be the more vulnerable to a serious injury.

These tips for motorists were prepared by the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) with the National Cycling Strategy Board to avoid adding to the many cyclists killed or seriously injured each year.

- Cyclists don’t have steel armour round them like we do. Passing them at speed within a foot of their elbow may feel perfectly safe from where you are, but it is very disconcerting when you are the cyclist.

- In traffic, make sure that you don’t cut up a cyclist who is about to pass you on the near side. Don’t try to cut across a cyclist when you need to turn left at a junction. Wait behind the cyclist until the cyclist has either turned left or passed the junction.  And before you turn left after sitting at a red light, check your nearside mirror to make sure there isn’t a cyclist moving down the inside.

- Park with care and prevent any passengers from opening a door until you are sure that there is no cyclist coming up on either side. Likewise, check over your shoulder to see there’s no cyclist approaching before opening the driver’s door.  There might be one in your blind spot.

- Cyclists often ride at some distance from the kerb to avoid drains and potholes.   Remember that their ability to signal is limited compared to ours, so try to anticipate what they might do from the position they have taken on the road.

- Advanced stop lines are for cyclists alone and should be respected, so leave the space between the two sets of stop lines empty, whether or not cyclists are occupying it when you arrive. If you see a cycle lane ending, road space is more scarce and that in turn can make a cyclist more vulnerable.

- Remember to use all your mirrors with extra care before changing direction when there are cyclists.  Pay particular attention on roundabouts, where many accidents involving cyclists happen.

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

Many drivers tend to brake too late and too hard. Or arguably less dangerous, but equally annoying, some drivers have the habit of “comfort braking ” – touching the brakes to enable themselves feel better, even if they have no intention of slowing the car to any measurable degree. They do so in the belief that they are being careful drivers.

It is better by far to learn to read the road ahead. Not only do you get early warning of developing hazards, you can respond by adjusting your speed using only your throttle.

Have you ever seen a “cascade” of brake lights ahead of you? An advanced driver will judge the speed and distances involved and, having left a decent gap, be able to follow in safety by letting the speed “fall away” and so avoiding the need to brake.

Think too about your positioning on the road. Can you maximise your forward view by putting the vehicle in a slightly different position on the carriageway? This should not be an abrupt repositioning, but a smooth change in your line to enable you to see ahead that little bit better. Careful adjustment of road position improves the view ahead, particularly through corners.

Applying these techniques will also help save fuel.

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

You can improve fuel consumption and gain the environmental benefits of advanced driving by lifting off the accelerator earlier on your approach to traffic lights etc, and therefore reducing your braking at the end,because you have already lost speed.

Acceleration sense is about how you vary your foot pressure on the accelerator pedal so you don’t have to brake as often or as hard.

Surprisingly to some, one of the pillars of fuel efficient driving is accelerating briskly to a safe cruising speed and then taking the highest gear.

The longer you can avoid braking, the more you are using the momentum you’ve built up. It means thinking a bit further ahead of where you are. Most drivers tend to go straight from accelerator to brake – and that is when fuel consumption suffers.

Plan your arrival at roundabouts so that you decelerate for a longer period in a higher gear.  That way you may not have to stop by allowing other traffic to clear before you get there.

And lastly, think long and hard about that overtake. Not only do you have to be entirely sure you can get past safely (important, to put it mildly) there is also the possibility that you are not gaining much in journey time. Advanced driving is all about thinking ahead, sometimes further than you can see.

This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)

There are some reckless young tearaways on our roads for whom there is no excuse. Many of them cast their mayhem wider into a criminal lifestyle.

Fortunately they are few, and most young drivers are not like that. The vast majority of them want to be safe. But even these youngsters then still crash far more than the rest of us. Sometimes they make tragic headlines of multiple deaths.

As adults, it is tempting to seek in every crash a way to just ‘blame the kids’, and perhaps begin to wonder whether they should be allowed to drive at all. But there are specific handicaps that we, as adults, give to young drivers which increase their crash risk and contribute to the carnage that disturbs us.

This is not to say we should find excuses for the novices who crash – they need to be encouraged to take more responsibility for themselves, not less. But along with this, and more importantly, we can not expect to reduce the problem if we deny the part that adults play in causing it. No matter how horrific the symptoms may be, we should not be blind to the underlying causes.

Along the complex and confusing journey that young people have into modern adulthood, the ability to drive is one of the most constructive elements. Mobility and independence is central to many healthy aspirations and opportunities. This makes it even more important that we help, not hinder, their progress and their ability to drive properly.

Let’s look at three handicaps created for young drivers.

1. We constrain children’s experience of risk in their most formative years
There is growing concern that shielding children from risk – especially in their play – stunts their natural development right through to adulthood. They are less aware of how to identify and deal with risks, and less prepared to take self-reliant responsibility for themselves. This has clear implications when they come to drive.

For dread of the slightest graze, we ban everything: ball games, tree swings, snowballs, cycling, running in the playground, and even skipping and conkers. And we thrust our head deep into the sand on the damage that this ‘safe from harm overload’ is actually doing.

One of the most striking signs of our times is the extraordinary shrinkage in the ‘radius of freedom’ that most kids now have to venture beyond the garden gate. Many are barely allowed out on their own well into the teen years. But filling them with fear is more about the adult’s own peace of mind than the presence of actual surrounding danger. Play that is fondly prescribed, provided and supervised is negative for their development into capable people.

The ‘cotton wool culture’ of risk aversion and dependence, instead of risk awareness and self-reliance, is an unhealthy lesson for every stage of their life. Alongside frustration at the bewildering rules, it lays down the assumption in their mind that someone else will always look after them.

Interestingly, with this over-protection we have also seen a steady deterioration in behaviour and discipline, notably apparent in schools. Perhaps it would help us understand what we are doing if we see the energies of childhood and adolescence as a balloon that will pop out somewhere else when it is squeezed.

Recent work on ‘frontal lobe development’ is also enlightening. This is the finding that the part of the brain responsible for key functions, such as hazard anticipation and risk management, is not fully developed until age 25. These functions have an obvious application in driving, and also help to counter the over-confidence that comes from the ease with which most youngsters learn physical car control.

It is emerging from trials that the ability of this part of the brain can be improved with training and experience – which is excellent if the training is made available. But it also poses the possibility that the converse can happen too, and that shielding children from risk might inhibit the natural process and pace of brain development, leaving youngsters with even less function than they ‘should’ have, and contributing to poor risk management ability.

Clearly, over-protection is a social and cultural trend, but driver training must address this handicap if we are to turn out safe young drivers.

2. We give them fictitious stereotypes of adults, males and drivers
Images of the adult world used in entertainment and marketing often bear little relation to reality. But careful presentation makes unlikely celebrities and fictional characters look like reasonable aspirations and role models. Especially in this fantasy, masculinity is defined as various blends of strong, fearless, daring and arrogant. And cars and driving are often employed to make the point.

For young boys, this taps straight into the raw urge for action-oriented challenges that nature has wired into the male brain. The images are designed to be compelling and to meet with approval in peer groups – who are equally confused about who they are and how to grow up. When they need guiding lights, these are false beacons that point to the rocks.

We see them hooked into the fantasy as the strutting bravado becomes a naked parade of the anxieties and self-doubt that it tries to keep secret. But this is difficult for a teenager to fathom from the inside, and even harder if there is no guiding adult male at home or close by to make sense of it all.

Girls tend to be less affected by the action-stereotype. The yearning in the female brain is to socialise instead. So boys tend to be drawn into ‘heroic quest’ computer games more seriously than girls, while the advent of chat-rooms has suddenly rocketed the hours that girls spend online. Even today’s ‘so cool’ techno-kids are still nature’s children, living out predictable roles.

At the same time though, we also see an overlap where some girls seem intent on copying the worst male behaviour, such as binge-drinking, creating a bizarre notion of competition and equality.

But still, and despite what they would have us believe, a lot of young people’s behaviour is guided by what they believe an adult is. And this is definitely something they learn mainly from adults.

In fairness, we should not be surprised that saturating children with an alchemy of distorted stereotypes leads them to strange assumptions about what society wants and expects from them as they grow up. They don’t see through fantasies as well as experienced adults can, and warping their view of the world makes a lot of things more difficult.

Again, this is a handicap created by social factors, but especially for young males, driver training must expose the stereotypes. This begins by recognising the specific flawed beliefs that create macho driving styles, and then carefully dismantling them. The action-impulse doesn’t need to be outlawed, it is the backbone of male achievement, but it does need direction.

3. We withhold the most critical safety skills when we teach them to drive
This is the worst adult delinquency of all – the way we train young people to drive. More than anything else, this ensures high risk when novices suddenly go solo.

There is now a broad and overdue acceptance that “fundamental reform in how we teach people to drive” is urgently needed. The traditional focus on physical car control does not impart the skills required to drive safely. Years of statistics bear testament.

This is no startling revelation, of course, it has been known for generations. The maxim, “You really learn to drive after passing the test”, isn’t an urban myth or something that teenagers dreamt up to torment us. It is a rational adult judgment on the training system borne of long experience – known for decades, yet still allowed to be true.

There are other beliefs implanted into young minds that compound the neglect, such as:

• ‘Driving skill is about good car control, especially at speed’
• ‘Good car control will let me handle any situation’
• ‘The L-test and a bit of practice covers the skills needed for safe driving’
• ‘Passing the test demonstrates that an acceptable standard of safety has been reached’.

And we should not protest that we don’t directly tell them these things. Again, these are not beliefs the youngsters invent. They are absorbed from the adult ether, and the training system allows them to thrive when it should be doing surgical removal.

In reality, we have been keeping big secrets, because we know that:

• real safety is in how drivers think – before they commit to physical actions
• focusing on car control will inevitably incite red-blooded young males to prove themselves
• novices are left to discover the most critical safety skills for themselves, as best they can on their own. And without being told what the skills are, or that they are necessary
• young drivers need to become far safer than their test performance.

The Essential Thinking Skills proposal to the Driving Standards Agency has already outlined a start-point for introducing thinking skills into driver training. It recommends the inclusion of:

• Beliefs – that are true (!) and provide a safer mindset from the beginning
• Sense of danger – to identify risk in terms that drivers can trust and control
• Driving skills framework – to explain how and why thinking skills are so critical
• Learning from experience – to implant a naturally increasing safety ability
• Specific techniques to improve risk assessment and control in real traffic situations.

To some extent, these are gained over time by experienced drivers. But the mystery box can all be disclosed and taught to learners and novices at the outset.

These are also the skills that enable drivers to take responsibility, and this removes another key blockage. Without knowing how to do it, the call to ‘take responsibility’ is a hollow demand that drivers will always struggle to meet. Car control is a poor illusion of being actually in control of driving situations.

Significantly too, the lack of training in the mental skills leaves novices more exposed to picking up unsafe driving practices from family or friends, or bowing to influence from peer passengers. With little grasp of how to assess risk as they drive, there is no benchmark against which to judge the folly of inattention, drink, drugs, fatigue, wrong speed, or simply acting the fool. They are also more exposed to the dangers created by other road users.

Novice drivers are at the point of being most dependent on what they are shown. And their fate is currently skewed by the yawning chasm in the training they receive.

Conclusion
Through honest eyes, the main reasons for the carnage among novice drivers are rooted in what adults do. We deny youngsters healthy encounters with risk, give them a distorted picture of adulthood, and withhold skills we know they need to have. In our nurturing of future generations, this is simple neglect.

Although some of the handicaps for young drivers are created in society, outside the realm of driving, this does not put them beyond reach. It simply underlines that driving is part of life, and that society tilts the pitch against many things that people need to do.

In driver training, our adult responsibility should lead us to:

• recognise how novice drivers are actively steered into high risk
• replace false beliefs with ones that will help young people understand and cope more successfully with the demands of driving. This can and should start at pre-driving age
• reveal the full scope of driving skill, and show how it really works
• teach the specific thinking skills that are the core of drivers being able to take care of themselves.

The necessary reform of driver training must accept the responsibility for creating safe drivers. The system design should not include restrictions and law enforcement as an easier alternative, or to cover over known and avoidable failures in the training. Our job is to work on the causes of the problem, not just punish the symptoms. And no one wants a rising generation that is primed with resentment.

Many novice drivers themselves sense that something is wrong, and would be keen to learn about the ‘real driving’ that confronts them after the test. Young people do want to be skilled, and value the boost that comes from being regarded as such.

The adult responsibility is to take this opportunity, and ensure that fundamental reform is ‘fundamentally different’ from the stream of past measures that have made no impression on the casualty graph.

Stephen Haley runs The Skilldriver project and is author of the book “Mind Driving” and can be contacted at shaley@advanced-driving.co.uk

Road safety is not a national problem – it is an international problem. SAFEX 2008 asks the question: what are the world’s governments doing to address this global catastrophe?

SAFEX 2008, organised by road safety experts IVV and sponsored by the DIA, is the only world road safety conference to target driver trainers and driver education and provide a truly international perspective to the issues involved in reducing the number of deaths on the world’s roads.

SAFEX 2008 is coming back to London after many years. The conference offers opportunities to meet old friends and make new contacts with road safety practitioners, academics, politicians, key researchers and members of the driver training industry from around the world.

The Driver Education World Conference is being held in London from the 16th-18th May inclusive. More information can be found at http://www.ivvsafex.com/