ADI - Diary Of An ADI

Idiot Courts And Mixed Messages To New Drivers

01/11/2013

William Houghton, 18, only passed his test 6 months ago, and had only had his Citroen Saxo for two weeks, when he lost control of his car driving at “about 50mph” (his own words) and injured two of his passengers. Both were hospitalised.

Houghton, who admitted driving without due care and attention on June 7, had passed his test six months earlier and had only had the Citroen for two weeks.

Houghton told the court he was very sorry for what he had done, thought he had been driving at about 50mph and put the accident down to inexperience.

Magistrates were suckered right in, and “applied discretion” in awarding him only 5 points, instead of 6, so that he wouldn’t be automatically banned and forced to take his test again. He was fined a total of over £300.

I’m sorry, but it’s a complete joke. There are new drivers out there who really do deserve a break, and yet don’t get one. But for luck, Houghton could have been apologising for killing two passengers. He had played out the new driver accident script to the letter.

Idiot Driver Caught Eating Cereal Behind Wheel

01/11/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Bad Drivers, News

Police in Edinburgh have launched an enquiry after a motorist was caught on camera eating a bowl of cereal while driving through the city centre. He was overtaking cyclists while he was doing it.

The car he’s driving looks like a Corsa, so I guess that puts it down to some sort of genetic problem.

The idiot deserves everything that is coming to him (assuming he gets caught). But it’s also worth pointing out that the video has been plastered all over the internet by the cyclist – called “Raging Bike” – who took it, along with various comments about the speed he was doing. I hope they had a calibrated speed gun in order to make the accusation about him exceeding 30mph (35mph is mooted).

Let’s also hope that the rightful prosecution of one blinkered idiot hasn’t been prejudiced by others.

If you Google “Raging Bike”, you’ll find that the person who crops up is not exactly pro-motorist. In fact, on one site where he is interviewed you get the impression that he is the character portrayed by Sylvester Stallone in the Rambo movies (particularly Rambo I and II) – except on a bike instead of an army truck or assault helicopter.

How To End A Career

01/11/2013

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ADI, Bad Drivers, DSA, News

This is a very old article.

The Suffolk Free Press reports that a driving instructor, Philip Devereux, was on a lesson with a pupil and the car was involved in a collision with another vehicle. When breathalysed, he was found to be almost twice the legal limit! The incident occurred on 5 October 2013.

He was banned for 12 months, and fined a total of just over £300.

The story doesn’t mention whether or not his ADI badge will be revoked or not (nor does it mention if anyone was injured). But going by the book, it probably will be. What a way to end your career.

Chinese Police Spark Sexism Outrage

31/10/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Funny, News, World

This made me smile. You have to remember that the claims of sexism are from the West – China doesn’t see it that way.

Police in Beijing have put out a series of advisories for female drivers via China’s equivalent of Twitter.

Some women drivers lack a sense of direction and while driving a car they often hesitate and can’t decide which road to take… Once they realize their mistake, they cause accidents by spinning the steering wheel in a panic.

[women drivers] are not able to find the way to their destination, even if they’ve been there many times.

Women drivers tend to panic following an accident… They usually draw a complete mental blank, providing opportunities for criminals.

These are just three of the pieces of advice. As you might expect, China’s female population isn’t taking it lightly. One candidate for the Dippy Blond Awards has replied:

This is discrimination! Many male drivers are idiots, too.

Obviously, Chinese feminists are less skilled when challenging alleged sexism than their Western counterparts.

Apparently, this advice comes hot on the heels (no pun intended) where a recent accident occurred after a woman’s high heel got stuck. Mind you, China’s journalists (certainly, their cartoonists) are similarly naive.

Goodyear/RED Partnership

31/10/2013

DOAADI

ADI, News

I’m not sure what the point of this is. The entire press release says:

Goodyear has announced a new partnership with RED Driving School, through which the tyre manufacturer will disseminate safety information to learner drivers via a new website and social media campaigns. The new collaboration will run alongside Goodyear’s existing national driving academy initiative in UK schools.

I’m sure someone somewhere will benefit, but I can’t work out who.

Saudi Arabia Ban On Women Drivers

28/10/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Funny, World

About a month ago I mentioned the on-going ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia, and some official over there had tried to argue that driving could harm a woman’s reproductive system and give rise to birth defects.

Well, it appears that the ban is not 100% supported by the Saudi male population, either. Comedian, Hisham Fageeh, has made a spoof video poking fun at the ridiculous claims and overall topic. It’s clever and funny, and to the tune of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ No Woman, No Cry.

Lesson: Don’t Argue With The Police

26/10/2013

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ADI, Bad Drivers, News

You’d think that being over the drink drive limit, having no licence, and no insurance would mean that you’d give the police a wide berth if you were driving past them.

Mind you, to get like that in the first place you’d probably have had a certain kind of upbringing – and therefore if you saw your father, for example, as you drove by, and noticed that he had been stopped by the police for some reason, then you might decide to go and poke your nose in and see if you could “help” (even though there is no recorded case of some caveman ever managing to successfully “help” another caveman when he has interfere with police business like this).

And this is what happened to Leon Fitzpatrick from Sunderland. He’d been on the booze the night before and as he was driving to work he saw that his father had been pulled over. Up to this point the police weren’t even aware of his existence. But then he decided to go and poke his nose in, and that was when the officers noticed the smell of alcohol on his breath. Naturally, routine checks then identified the breaches of licence conditions.

His defence lawyer was Anna Haq – a name which I recognise from a story not long ago, but which I haven’t bothered to look up. Her pathetic mitigating comments were:

He would never have been arrested if he had not got out of that vehicle, there was no evidence of bad driving.

Ah, well that’s OK then. He could have then just gone and driven through a school crossing and everything would have been fine.

He was banned for 14 months and fined a total of £215.

Sports Car Driver Kills Two

25/10/2013

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ADI, News

Darren Jarvis, 42, was allegedly showing off in his sports car (reg. plate WH06 BAD – with a screw in the ‘6’ to make it read “WHOS BAD”) when he lost control at 100mph. He careered into another car and killed two male occupants, both married and each with two children.

Jarvis denies two charges of causing death by dangerous driving. He is claiming he had some sort of seizure and that he was driving at less than 100mph.

As the court case continued, it appeared that Jarvis accelerated hard and managed to go round a bend before losing control. He was also seen trying to wrestle control back after he’d lost it (it must have been a very strange sort of seizure he had). However, a witness at the scene reckons he was shaking and “frothing at the mouth”. Jarvis claims he can’t remember anything.

EDIT: The case is still on-going. There are several further updates, and summing up has concluded.

EDIT: And Jarvis was found guilty. He faces hail when he is sentenced in November.

Reducing The Cost Of Motoring

25/10/2013

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ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, News, Transport

This story has been covered in the press and in a DSA email alert, Apparently, the government (I’m not sure if they mean Mickey or Donald) has decided that drivers need their help. According to The Mail, this means freezing the MoT charge until 2015, erecting signs along motorways to warn motorists of rip-off prices, and “reviewing” the cost of the driving test and provisional licence. Oh, and some stuff about stopping liars and lawyers cashing in on whiplash claims.

The one about road signs is already the only issue that matters as far as The Mail is concerned.

But in all honesty, it is just a joke. The MoT costs nearly £55, and if I remember correctly that went up from the previous price of £38 about four years ago. An MoT is only required for cars older than three years, and it has to be renewed annually after the first one, so if the price went up now it would only jump by £10-£20. That would equate to a massive additional outlay equivalent up to 5½ pence per day.

I think we’re all grateful to the government for freezing that one until 2015 (even though it will then go up by a larger amount to make up for lost time)!

Then there is the plan to erect illuminated price signs along the motorways so that you know how much it costs to fill up at the services en route.

Ministers hope it will highlight the sums being charged by some garages that believe they have a ‘captive market’, and encourage them to compete for custom.

So, these would be illuminated signs like the ones you get outside garages on non-motorway routes? Fantastic idea, and well worth the hundreds of thousands of pounds of MPs’ time which were no doubt required to come up with it!

Returning to Planet Earth, there is then the “review” of the cost of the driving test and a provisional licence. The test costs £62 at the moment, and somehow I can’t really imagine the price going down. Of course, a lot of instructors out there – especially the ones who have recently been trying to get into politics themselves – believe that the test is too expensive on the grounds that the hourly pro rata rate is more than instructors can command for lessons. Some will even go so far as to mention how the test only cost about £5 back in the 70s – even though £5 in 1970 would be worth £65.50 in 2013 money! Even after decimalisation the equivalent today would have been £35 or more. Therefore, the test has not gone up by that much.

But above all that, the structure of the part of government that manages tests is far too bureaucratic to justify being able to cut the price, and the only possible direction – apart from freezing it artificially – is upwards.

Oh yes. And the provisional licence costs £50. It is paid for once by 99% of the population.

If the idiots really wanted to cut costs for motorists they could do two things:

cut fuel duty

prosecute Nottingham City Council for commencing protracted simultaneous road works across the City

Women Better Than Men At Multitasking

25/10/2013

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ADI, News, Training

This article from the BBC suggests that the long-held belief that women are better than men at multitasking was a “myth”. But it goes on to report that new research has shown that it’s true after all: women are better at it – in some things, at least..

Harley Quinn - female joker card image It’s funny, but I have never regarded it as a myth. I have always told my pupils that women are generally better than men at multitasking – but I’ve then explained precisely what is meant by “multitasking”, because that’s where the real confusion lies. The conversation usually comes about early on, perhaps when learning how to coordinate the pedals, or maybe when trying a manoeuvre like the turn in the road for the first time.

When you ask a pupil about multitasking, they’ve all heard of it, and they all know about the men vs. women thing. But almost all of them associate it with doing two or more things at the same time, and that’s definitely not what it is. You see, when they try a turn in the road for the first time they will often try to control the speed of the car and steer at the same time – with the net result that neither operation is completed properly. Or when it comes to stopping near the kerb they’ll be trying to steer, and brake, and watch the kerb all at the same time (incidentally, this is where hitting the gas pedal by mistake is most likely to occur) – again, none of these sub-tasks gets completed properly

The problem lies in the fact that no one can do two or more separate things simultaneously – that is, at exactly the same time. What they can do, however, is quickly switch between the individual sub-tasks which make up each overall task. So both tasks get completed by doing a bit of one, then a bit of the other, then the next bit of the first one… and so on. And it is here where women are generally – though not always – more adept than men. It’s also one reason why men and women can become frustrated with each other, when the man focuses on one task or conversation, whereas the woman jumps between them.

You can’t pigeonhole human behaviour as easily as all this, though – and definitely not when it comes to driving. In terms of spatial awareness, for example, men generally have the edge. Women generally have the edge when it comes to not having over-inflated egos, though. Every difference between the sexes is just a generality, and when you add them all up everything gets smoothed out and there’s not that much difference. However, as I mentioned in the Tears of a Clown article, some people have emotional jokers up their sleeves which often reinforces the stereotypical views.

Category - ADI