ADI - Diary Of An ADI

If a Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing…

12/07/2011

…then no knowledge whatsoever must be lethal!

This is Plymouth (link long since dead) reports on a press release concerning test centre pass rates. Basically, 152 out of 340 test centres have pass rates of 50% or more. No one seems to have bothered to calculate that this is 45% of test centres – so you could say that about half of all test centres have pass rates of 50% or more, and half have pass rate of less.

It’s a bit like saying that when you toss a coin there is a 50% chance of getting heads, and then getting all upset by it as if it’s a problem or something!

This is Plymouth is worried that the Plymouth test centre has a failure rate of 60%, whereas other Devon centres have failure rates of 49%, 45%, and 42%. Why assume that the 60% one is wrong? What about the one at 42%?

The highest failure rate was as Hermon Hill, Wanstead – 72% out of 4,826 first time tests.

The lowest failure rates are in remote Scottish communities – with tiny populations:

Examiners in places such as Mallaig, Inveraray, Islay and the Isle of Skye test barely 200 candidates between them a year.

Mallaig saw 14 first-time candidates last year and failed only 21% – or three – of them. Again, no one seems to have bothered to calculate that if they’d have failed a fourth then the failure rate would have leapt up to 29%. Fail a fifth and it’s a humongous 36%.

In Wanstead, you’d have to fail another 50 to increase the failure rate by just 1%!

It’s pretty obvious that driving around Mallaig is not the same as driving around Wanstead – except to the media. And Wanstead hardly has the same sort of clientele as Mallaig. So why the big deal?

91-year Old TakesTest in Sussex

12/07/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

There’s got to be more to this than meets the eye, but any two-bit rag which can’t find anything better to do than use the freedom of information (FOI) act to stir up the dirt and wave away anything it doesn’t know for certain won’t be worried about that!

Apparently, the oldest driver to take their test in Sussex last year was 91. More than 500 over 50 took it (big deal), and 13 of these were over the age of 71.

No further information is known – where they lived or if they passed or not (though it is obvious The Argus asked this, as the DSA refused to provide the information under data protection laws).

This non-story is made even more laughable by the revelation that the same number of people over 71 took tests in the preceding three years. This makes it all the more difficult to work out precisely what point the rag is making.

There’s some idle speculation from a driving instructor that the motivation must have come from having been driven around by someone else (what?), and the usual “contact scumbag@rag.co.uk if you know the silver learner driver” at the end – I’m sure these local newspapers use templates instead of writing for themselves: this is identical across at least four or them over the last couple of months. Even the morons who leave comments seem to come from the same herd.

Back to the topic: I seem to be the only one who is honest enough to admit that he shudders when he thinks of a 91-year old being allowed loose on the roads.

Despatch: July 2011

07/07/2011

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

The July issue of Despatch is now available. Click the logo to download a copy.

In this issue there’s an article about plans to take tests closer to candidates by running them out of local council real estate or private sites. There’s some stuff about motorcycle tests, details of the compensation scheme for ADIs who have been suspended and subsequently cleared of whatever got them suspended, a bit about the Strategic Framework for road safety (the “C” word isn’t mentioned), and an article about unofficial test booking sites.

First Road Kill

07/07/2011

DOAADI

ADI

On a lesson with a pupil on Tuesday, we’d just driven away from his house in a small village and were heading off down a rural road with a national speed limit.

We’d just accelerated to about 50mph when a rabbit ran into the road. It did the usual “double take” – ran out, saw us, ran a bit back, then ran back again – then BAM-BAM. Straight under both wheels.

It was only a baby one, about as big as a cricket ball. After we’d gone over it, it was more the size of a labrador – albeit only in two dimensions.

Seriously, at least we killed it outright. It went directly under the front and back wheels and we flattened it.

It was actually the first time I’ve had a road kill on a lesson – and only one of a handful of times I’ve killed anything in my years of driving. I hate doing it, but you get used to it – and a cuddly baby bunny isn’t really much different to a grotty adult one with myxomatosis, or even a pheasant (the stupidest bird on the planet, because why would you walk in the middle of the road so much when you can fly?)

I often get pupils who can easily overlook an elderly couple stepping on to a zebra crossing, but who will slam on the brakes for a pigeon (aka “flying rat”).

The pupil this time was OK about it, but he said he didn’t like doing it. On the way back I pointed out that it was now food for a Magpie.

"Fronting" on Rise

06/07/2011

DOAADI

ADI

“Fronting” is when someone is the main driver or owner of a car, and yet is only insured as a named driver – usually on a parent’s insurance policy. Anyone doing it is unlikely to be insured – their policies will be void.

This story has some interesting statistics. It says that 25% of young drivers have lied to get cheaper insurance, and 68% of those claimed they didn’t know they were wrong.

The report adds that 39% do not declare modifications to their cars, and 41% lie about keeping the car in a garage. Based on my own recent observations, they could have added a similarly large statistic involving lying about where you live by up to 150 miles (so far) in order to get the postcode disadvantage of your actual location off your policy.

People who think they’re clever like this are incredibly dim, though. None of them can grasp the concept of not being covered through voiding your policy, or of being prosecuted and receiving points and a ban as a direct result. Few seem to realise that you don’t have to be involved in an accident for the deception to be detected and lead to such a ban.

And none seem to have any inkling of just what such a ban would do to your career and future insurance premiums – directly and indirectly – if you got one.

Stop the Pigeon!

04/07/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Funny

I was on a lesson Saturday with a pupil and we were doing the parallel park exercise. Part of the way I teach it to most pupils involves reversing the car back to an angle of about 45° (half past one, or whatever), and to do that most of them need to look for where that is and pick a sort of reference point (until they can do it without).

My pupil had reversed back to her starting position, so I asked:

Have you picked your reference?

She thought for a moment, and said:

Yes. That pigeon.

There was a wood pigeon walking on the grass. I replied:

Don’t you think it would make sense to pick something a little less animated? You know, less likely to fly off in the middle of it? How about that big tree stump that the pigeon is standing in front of?

A few seconds later it DID fly off, which enabled me to be even more witty!

Mind you, a couple of years ago I was with another pupil on the same manoeuvre. When I asked him what reference he’d chosen he said:

That plastic bag.

The wind was blowing a plastic carrier bag across a field, and it had come to a temporary rest.

And then another time on the same manoeuvre, a pupil did the whole thing perfectly. After I’d congratulated him I asked how he had managed to get the 45° position. He ruined it all by saying:

I used that blue building over there because that’s what we used the last time we came here.

And once, when reversing around a sharp corner just prior to her test, I asked a pupil how she had determined that she was at the right place to turn, she said:

I lined that Post Box up in the corner of the window.

Language can be very confusing all round. A while back a Chinese pupil completely ignored a speed limit change from 40mph down to 30mph. When I questioned her over it, she said it “wasn’t very clear”. In fact, the signs were visible a quarter of a mile away, were about 1.5 metres in diameter, and had their own lights – plus, I had narrated the approach as follows:

Now plan ahead… [nothing]… look at the signs… [nothing].. what is the speed limit..? [nothing as we sailed through]

It turned out that when she panicked she saw things in Chinese! It would be like me going to China and having to make a snap decision between two routes signposted in Mandarin Chinese. I’d have no chance.

But my most recent one was last week with a new pupil whose native language is Urdu, and whose English is not perfect. At least half a dozen times, when I said “keep left” as he wandered wide he tried to do a sharp left turn in response - twice when there was nowhere to actually turn left into. All he heard was “left”. I’ve told him I am not able to teach him and have given him some phone numbers of Urdu-speaking instructors.

Say That Again?

30/06/2011

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

I was at the test centre this morning and an instructor had had a test cancelled. I listened to the ensuing diatribe against the DSA – ironically, after the instructor who’d be cancelled had gone – by one very vocal individual.

I won’t repeat it here, but he blamed the DSA. He reckoned that if the driving test was run by someone else (who? DSA II? A private organisation? Many private organisations on a local basis?) it wouldn’t happen.

Just for clarification: the strikes have been called by the union. The fact that the union (PCS) that some DSA staff belong to is involved is primarily one of solidarity. That, and an overwhelming desire to have a strike because they haven’t had one for a bit. The DSA hasn’t done anything to provoke this strike – it’s about pensions and opposition to change, if anything.

And you’ve just got to see this. The BBC reports on the day of action. But look at this part:

Janice Godrich, the president of PCS, joined a picket line in Glasgow. She claimed there was strong support for the action.

She said: “We’ve just seen two people, after discussions with their colleagues, turn around and decide not to go into work.

“I have to say that I think all the scare mongering, and all the intimidation quite frankly, over the last few days – particularly from senior ministers – has not had any impact on people’s resolve.”

I’d just love to have heard precisely what it was the pickets and the people who turned round said to each other. And how it was said. But of course, Ms Godrich and PCS don’t like scaremongering and indimidation, do they?

Let’s face facts here. If you decide to go into work over something which has the profile this strike has had, and then turn around and go home because of the pickets “talking” to you, it isn’t because you’ve suddenly seen the light that you failed to see all the time before! Janice Godrich needs her head examining if she thinks anyone will swallow that.

Strikes Look Likely This Thursday

27/06/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

Well, the idiot unions look to have got their way. Anyone with a driving test on Thursday should prepare for the possibility of it not going ahead.

However, bear in mind that not all driving examiners are in the union, and not all those who are will take strike action anyway. So unless you hear directly from the DSA, turn up on time and keep your fingers crossed.

As a footnote, some of the comments at the bottom of that story are hilarious. I love it when people who know absolutely nothing about politics (or anything else, come to that) try to pretend that they do.

Plans to Take Driving Tests Closer to Candidates

27/06/2011

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

An email alert from the DSA:

Plans to take driving tests closer to candidates

Driving test candidates could benefit from a more local service as the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) carries out a trial exploring a new approach to test delivery.

As well as using conventional driving test centres, DSA is looking at whether tests could also be delivered from other venues such as local authority buildings, hotels or leisure centres.

The trials will provide practical car tests in selected areas that no longer have a local test centre, but still have a significant demand for tests. The aim is to provide a service for the local community and ensure that candidates are able to take their test at convenient locations.

Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said:

“I want us to be more flexible and innovative in delivering driving tests to make sure that we are offering people the best service possible wherever they live.

“Our aim is to provide a more local service that is both convenient for candidates and cost effective.

The trials are due to take place in seven locations across Britain: Ashford, Ayrshire, Dumbarton, Louth, Warrington, Wiltshire and one location in Wales that is still to be decided. The trials will be monitored to assess any impact on levels of customer service and the cost of delivery, as well as making sure the integrity of the test is maintained.

DSA will then decide whether the trials can be rolled out to other areas without a test centre where there is a significant demand, and where suitable routes and venues can be identified.

The trials will only involve practical car tests; theory test centres will not be affected.

You can find copies of the local press releases on the Department for Transport website.

It’s interesting that many of the listed locations correspond to places where test centres have recently been closed (and which I’ve written about on here due to the antics of local ADIs and wannabe politicians).

Also funny is how one forum already has some joker labelling it as a moneymaking scheme by the DSA. I guess he can be forgiven his crass ignorance over the kerfuffles surrounding test centre closures in these areas, and the fact that this is obviously something the DSA has HAD to do after being leant on by the government, rather than do through choice.

Epileptic Causes Fatal Crash

24/06/2011

DOAADI

ADI, General

A nasty story in the BBC News. Giles Furnival is an epileptic who had not informed the DVLA of his illness. He was suffering several fits a month, yet somehow decided that suddenly being inside a car which didn’t have a driver (when a fit came) and was going at anything up to 70mph (legally) wasn’t a risk to himself or anyone else.

In September last year, he was travelling “at speed” on the M25 when he had an epileptic fit. It appears he veered on to the hard shoulder, then veered back and hit the car being driven by a male and his girlfriend. The woman, Laura Williams, died.

Furnival was jailed for 3½ years, banned from driving for five, and instructed to take an extended test (fortunately, the law on epilepsy effectively means he won’t be able to drive for much longer if he keeps having fits).

But he should have been put away for a lot longer and banned for life. Laura Williams won’t get a second chance, but this evil specimen has.

The law associated with epilepsy is rather complicated in many respects. However, it is extremely simple in one main area: if you are having frequent fits then you are not fit to drive and cannot do so. You need to have gone 12 months without a seizure before you can even be considered fit to think about driving again.

Category - ADI