Category - ADI

It doesn’t surprise me – there was this story on Autoblog last week. There is a new menace on the roads: Facebook.

I’ve mentioned on several occasions (just search for “texting” using the search facility on the right) that the number of people who are obviously texting whilst driving is increasing all the time. But it seems there may have been more to it than I thought.

Now, I’ve got to be completely honest about this. I have never understood Facebook or its appeal. Oh, I’m a member – but whenever I follow a link back to the page it came from I am amazed by the utter rubbish at the other end in most cases.

It is full of sad people having conversations with themselves, or “making friends” with other sad people (which amounts to clicking a button and appearing as a “friend” on their “friends” list, and almost nothing else). Even where there is a page with attempts at sensible discussion on it, Facebook  is not exactly the most navigable system in the world – and it is infested by halfwits who are only there to swear. And who gives a toss whether “Frazer from Hertford likes this”?

Here are some examples picked at random from profiles and Facebook discussions:

Music: Cheryl Cole, U2, Snow Patrol

…here’s a good tip if your feeling sh*t WEAR GLOVES

F*** YOU! 🙂          [censored by me]

finks its time 2 calm down abit now and maybe grow up … actually f*** that il just calm down 🙂          [censored by me]

It doesn’t get any better than this. So it should come as a shock to everyone to learn that the sad imbeciles who can’t live without Facebook are now using it while they are driving! According to Autoblog:

The success of websites like Facebook and Twitter, combined with the rise of the smartphone, has added another dimension to the list of likely distractions.

While calls and texts remain the biggest reason for taking your eyes off the road, the study also listed the applications motorists were most likely to use at the wheel. The largely predictable top five were email, Google Maps, music, photos and Facebook.

And let’s not just single out Facebook here. Twitter lends itself far more easily to being used whilst driving. But the problem is the same.

It truly is frightening that people like this are allowed to keep their licences. They should be banned for life.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we don’t have another winter like last year. The persistent snow and ice led to me having to cancel quite few lessons.

But – just like every year – the media is intent on talking things up into a crisis.

This story from the Telegraph today says that Met Office data indicate a milder than usual winter is on the way, although both it and the Met Office point out clearly that long terms forecasts are no longer given (mainly because of the “barbecue summer” forecast where B&Q had to start selling diy Ark kits so people could get about).

That’s not good enough for the Telegraph, though. It had to rake in some people from the Association of Village Idiots – no doubt specially selected for their alternative vibes about the forthcoming winter.

Now, it’s worth pointing out again that the Met Office no longer does long-range forecast. The Telegraph story says so, and the Met Office says so. In fact, the Met Office has just sent out an email alert which says:

Following public research, the Met Office no longer issues long-range forecasts for the general public; instead we provide a monthly outlook on our website.

Despite this, you may have seen some reports in the media on Thursday, suggesting the Met Office has produced a forecast for the coming winter.

These media reports have based their interpretation for the coming winter on probability maps on our website. However, they have been selective about the information they have used and you should not take these interpretations as a guide to the coming winter. Instead we would recommend using our monthly outlook and short range forecasts.

But this doesn’t stop one Village Idiot declaiming:

“It baffles me how the Met Office can predict a milder-than-average winter when all the indicators show this winter will have parallels to the last one,” he said.

“The Met Office is standing alone here, as ourselves and other independent forecasters are all predicting a colder-than-average winter.”

Personally, I just have a horrible feeling that we’ll get another bad winter. I don’t care about the temperature, but I do care about snowfall.

It has been quite wet recently. I don’t care how “dry” it has been statistically, I know how “wet” it is now (it’s raining as I speak). They’ve already had snow in Scotland, and although the temperature outside today is around 13°C, only two days ago it was as low as -5°C and I was getting ice off the car before starting work two mornings running. But when it is cold, rain can fall as snow.

Fingers crossed.

Doing a bit of forum surfing, I came across this post. It is titled “Disturbing news”:

Ive recently heard about an adi who qualified a few months ago, and has only now received their CRB form.

I was under the impression that the CRB check was done before training starts.

The disturbing news, is that the adi could be a convicted rapist and was allowed to teach.

Is this another example of DSA incompetence?

I’ve emboldened the important bit. The post seems to be saying that a suspected convicted rapist became an ADI. Everyone else who read the post on the forum in question thought so, too.

The original poster then responded:

The adi is in fact a female.

The point I was trying to make was that the adi could have been a rapist or other undesireable had been allowed to teach, before the DSA knew about it.

So, the claim in the original was a badly worded ‘what if?’ scenario. But I think the point is well made – though not quite how it was originally intended. How the hell do some of these people become and remain ADIs? They can’t write or express themselves clearly, and they are prepared to use something as extreme as rape as a lever to have a go at the DSA? It isn’t as if they have proof that the underlying story – minus the poorly presented libel – is true.

I’ve recently sent my ADI renewal in because my current one expires at the end of this month. I did it online – you have to give your CRB check number (and pay by credit/debit card), then send a copy of the completed application with a passport photo to the DSA by post. The CRB check has to be completed some months previously if you want to be sure of having it before your registration is due.

So, I can’t see how the story can be true – and certainly not in the way it has been reported here.

But I have to wonder what exactly would the problem be if it were true? Obviously, it isn’t a good thing – but nor is it the end of the world. It isn’t like anyone can get away with it. It would certainly make you wonder at the motives and suitability of the ADI in question, who knew (or should have known) full well that you need a fresh CRB check before you can apply for a licence or a renewal of it. But this isn’t quite what the person who made that post was getting at.

A reader sent me this link from an American AOL news site.

A teenager in Pittsburgh, Pa, passed his test – then promptly drove into the test centre. And I mean in through the front door, lobby, and finally somewhere out of shot of the security cameras.

There’s video footage of his first lone journey.

One thing I noticed: although it is American, the stock photo of the L plate taped to the car (shown here) appears to be British!

EDIT: Ooops. Not American – it’s a UK site.

I was driving to my evening lesson last night along the Nottingham Road between Gotham and Clifton (5.45pm). Just before Clifton, there is a small link (Barton Lane) on the left, which joins the A453 to Nottingham Road – it is famously used a a rat run by people attempting to skip the queues on the A453 at the Crusader Island.

Anyway, Nottingham Road has a national speed limit. I was cruising along, and about half a mile in advance was already watching the traffic coming out of Barton Lane (it’s flat farmland all around). As I got cloer and closer, you had the usual “last minute” merchants desperate not to have to wait a few seconds longer (mainly vans).

But the prat in the silver Audi (reg. no. LX08 XGA ) forced me to slam on my brakes – there was absolutely no way he was safe to go. I’m pretty sure that apart from his genetic abnormality (possessed by ALL Audi drivers), he did it because “it was only a learner”.

Behaviour like this causes deaths. It is virtually attempted murder – a new driver or learner (if it hadn’t have been me driving) could have reacted entirely differently, and with far more serious results. These people ought to be taken off the roads permanently.