News - Diary Of An ADI

AutoExpress Fuels The Fires

19/06/2013

This article in AutoExpress trumpets that “young drivers could face wait to take test”. It’s really annoying that publications can put out rubbish like this without applying any critical editorial comment. They could have at least asked a few driving instructors… oh, wait. Maybe not.

Steven Hammond, the Transport Minister, gives a brilliant demonstration of why he should just talk plainly and clearly, and not try to be so clever when he says:

You are about to see from this Department a big piece of work going out to consultation on some ideas, and the meat and drink will be around people aged between 17 and 24.

What the hell does that mean? Why couldn’t he just have said “we are putting out a number of possible considerations to public consultation”? In any case, the last announcement of this kind involved driving instructors being able to take learners on motorways, and I think we all know how far that one got. But back to this particular set of nonsense, Hammond states the obvious, whilst simultaneously implying that he though of it first:

There is some interesting evidence that suggests we ought to have a period of time between gaining your provisional licence and taking your test, so you gain experience of the road.

I’ve been saying that for years, and so have a lot of others. It’s not a major new discovery – it’s just common sense. But he then says:

When we put the consultation document out, we’ll leave that [the timeframe] open to some people’s suggestions, but I’d suggest somewhere between six to nine months is appropriate.

So, the only people who will be affected will be the ones likely to pass quickly anyway. With official statistics putting the average number of training hours before test at around 45 hours, and with more and more people only able to average 1½ hours per week, many people are already taking 6 months or more to learn, so it would be no change. (Yes, I know that some do it quicker – I already said that, so don’t write in about it). He adds:

Other suggestions being considered include insurance premium reductions and looking at how young drivers use cars once they pass their test.

Oh, wow. Another great idea no one has ever thought of before. Black boxes, anyone? So it’s taken the government over two years to catch up. He digs his hole even deeper:

We’re looking at working with the insurance industry in terms of potentially offering some incentives to do a post-test lesson on motorway driving or night-time driving, alongside an insurance fee trade-off. Or if not, how we could encourage people to do it as part of their post-test training.

Brilliant! And we could give it a snazzy name. How about “Pass Plus”? Hammond should really give up on trying to add spice to his language:

There is also an appetite for looking at who is driving and how many people should be in the car in your first couple of years of driving.

We do see tragic accidents quite often where four or five young people in a car all get killed and quite often the driver isn’t over the limit, but is egged on by a number of people who are.

Another unique idea that hasn’t been mooted for at least the last two years, and mangled by his own way of badly wording things.

Hammond is on a different planet (like the rest of his party) – and AutoExpress is clearly flying out to join him by not applying any critical editorial to this story.

Anyone reading this should bear in mind that the consultation has not yet started. You can allow a year from when it does, and another year to implement any changes (bearing in mind that it will require changes to the law). Also allow for the fact that the usual radical groups will be all over it like a rash, and this may create further delay or result in some ideas not being implemented. So we’re looking at at least two years from today for anything to realistically happen. The next General Election is just less than two years away…

So, it will either be a cynical attempt to get votes (started early to see how it pans out) or something to forget and blame on the next party to get in (because there’s a good chance it won’t be the LibCons again).

From The Mouths Of Idiots, Words Of Wisdom Seldom Come…

19/06/2013

DOAADI

Bad Drivers, Driving Tests, News, Training, World

This came in on the newsfeeds from Yahoo! Answers. Bear in mind that it is American, but you can still draw some massive conclusions about the juvenile mentality and attitude in the 21st Century.

One guy posts a “question”, which runs as follows (all spelling and grammar left in intact):

Whats was worst driving school you ever had?

I recently signed up for a driving school. I was cheap and signed up for the most inexpensive one in my neighborhood. I know how to drive, but haven’t driven in years, so I just wanted to refresh my memory. My driving instructor could barely speak English and so are their other instructors. I almost crashed, because I could not understand what exactly does the guy want me to do.

Even though I signed up for a package, I am leaving this school and now finishing my lessons with them. Safety comes first, and if I can’t understand them I can’t drive safely. Funniest part is the guy yelling in a foreign language. The heck?

I am gong back to my old driving school. I bit pricey, but worth it.

Whats was worst driving school you ever had?

Sorry for the rant. Should have gotten a car back in the days and not forgotten how to drive.

Additional Details

I would probably teach myself, but I don’t have a car. I knew how to drive, but forgot the details after several years of now being behind the wheel. I plan on buying one, once my memory of driving comes back.

It’s worrying that the option to “teach myself” exists, but more worrying still is the answer that the original asker chose as “the best”:

i was born with a psychotic mom and my dad left early. because my mom wasn’t 100% right in the head and didn’t know how to drive properly herself, i had to teach myself how to drive. in a shitbox ’90 Quad-4 Grand Am with no power steering, a slipping transmission, bald tires, and busted tie rods. if i could do it, you can. schools are a waste of money.

As long as idiots like this can “teach themselves” and freely move about the country – even the world – without supervision, then I would have to agree that driving schools ARE a waste of money, particularly in America. I mean, why spend a penny when you don’t have to, and can then drive around in a clearly illegal vehicle for as long as you want? And this guy obviously owes a lot more to his “mom” than he realises.

Meanwhile, most of America continues to have semantic arguments over things like whether banning the use of mobile phones when you’re driving is against your Constitutional Rights! Frighteningly, the barometer seems to be moving towards the “yes, it is” side.

Bill Plant ASA Rulings

19/06/2013

DOAADI

ADI, News

I note from the newsfeeds that Bill Plant has been tussling with the ASA again. This time, rather than being on the offensive against other schools it found itself having to explain some of its creative claims which had been challenged by one of its franchisees.

(Note that the stand-in logo to the left is used because last time (when they were challenging another school’s use of the word “national”) I got an email from them demanding that I remove their registered trademark from my news story. So this time, I removed it before I even used it. What makes me laugh is that I’ve never really had an axe to grind with Bill Plant, and I’ve always been fairly sympathetic towards them. It’s funny how being told to remove a logo – with “or else” being implied – can alter your way of thinking about someone. Another advertising faux pas, so to speak.)

You can read the full ruling for yourself, but the four points centred around a freephone number that wasn’t free, an inflated franchisee support claim, a misleading “free pupils” claim, and a misleading “free CPD” claim. All were upheld, and Bill Plant told not to do any of it again.

Elderly Drivers vs. Cyclists

17/06/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Bad Drivers, News, World

A story came through on the newsfeeds concerning an accident in Australia, where an elderly nun had an epileptic seizure and hit a female cyclist, who was killed.

I think my position on elderly drivers is clear, but in this particular case it wasn’t age that was to blame, but an epileptic fit. However, the website carrying the story is a cyclists’ site – my position where cyclists are concerned is also clear – and it makes a big issue out of calls by the dead woman’s husband for tougher measures against elderly drivers. As I say, it was an epileptic seizure and not specifically an age-related issue which caused the accident.If anything, it should be a call for tougher measures against epileptics!

Moving on, though, I noticed a couple of references to UK incidents in the article. One, from 2011, tells how an 85-year old ploughed through a group of riders, killing one of them, but who apparently didn’t realise anything had happened until his wife told him. Another story, from 2012, tells of an 84-year old who broke the back of a cyclist when he drove into him as a result of defective eyesight.

We need to get some perspective here. I agree wholeheartedly that anyone with poor eyesight or ill-health, and whose driving is affected as a result, should be taken off the road by force. They should not be allowed back behind the wheel unless they can prove their deficiencies have been corrected, and that should apply whether they’re 16 or 86. Ironically, the UK prides itself in allowing disabled people to get a licence earlier than the able-bodied, and in not taking licences off people when the evidence is screaming out that they should not be allowed near anything with moving parts.

But when you throw cyclists into the mix you have a completely different issue, because a large proportion of them are their own worst enemies. In that 2011 story, for example, the group involved was on a sponsored ride from Belfast to London, via Dublin and Bristol. This detail alone means that they would hardly have been riding in what I would call an inconspicuous manner. What I’m really getting at is that their purpose would probably have meant that they were on main roads, at all times of the day, and if they were anything like most of the cyclists I have to deal with they would have been riding at least two abreast. The purpose of their ride would have more than likely resulted in other behaviours likely to obstruct motorists and other road users on such roads.

None of that can possibly justify what the car driver did by riding into them, nor does it put up any sort of defence for his age-related weaknesses. But it Elderly Bike Rider certainly provides at least a partial explanation for why it might have happened when it did. After all, if the cyclists hadn’t have been there, the driver wouldn’t have hit them.

While I was out on lessons today, there were cyclists everywhere, and nearly all of them were causing obstructions. In one particular case, two of the idiots were riding side-by-side along the A52 towards Radcliffe-on-Trent on a 70mph dual carriageway. They were completely blocking one whole lane. They ought to have been on the cycle path which was a mere two metres to their left, but that’s not what these morons do. In another example, I was on a single track lane and as I rounded a corner an idiot on a bike came flying round the opposite way on the wrong side. These are not isolated examples, and “sensible” isn’t a word that appears in their vocabulary.

Since the Olympics last year the number of people riding bikes has skyrocketed, and the number of Silver Spandex Boys – middle-aged and elderly riders – has increased dramatically. Of course, no one is demanding that their eyesight or other faculties be tested, least of all the blinkered biker websites. These riders require no training and no licence, so no one can do anything to keep them off the roads. You have to face the fact that the only reason more of them aren’t injured or killed is because of the evasive action taken by drivers when they encounter them. It’s like when you have young children who run into the road without looking – every now and then one gets hit, but most drivers manage to slam the brakes on and avoid them.

Roads are specifically for cars, not cyclists. Cyclists are allowed to use them, but very few cyclists make any attempt to avoid conflict and – either through stupidity or arrogance – put themselves and others in danger. All that matters to the average cyclist is the cyclist!

Banned Driving Instructor: A Warning

16/06/2013

DOAADI

ADI, News

This story in the newsfeeds reports how a (now ex-) driving instructor in Northern Ireland was wandering around a shopping mall with a camera attached to his shoe, attempting to take photos up women’s skirts.

He was called before the Department of the Environment – the people who issue and maintain ADI licences in NI – and told his licence was revoked.

There is a lot more information in the stories in the Belfast Telegraph. So much information, in fact, that it is possible to pull in a lot more information from numerous other sources concerning this instructor. He only qualified in late 2007 on his fifth attempt, having spent the best part of 4 years in training up to that point. But he has thrown all of that away.

Elderly Drivers Update

15/06/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Bad Drivers, News

I wrote a few days ago about a further brace of accidents involving old drivers. Interestingly, there is a further story connected with the incident involving 93-year old Jim Sims.

Before we start reaching for the Kleenex to mop up the tears over this sob story, let’s remind ourselves that Sims hit the gas instead of the brake at a T-junction, shot forward, narrowly missed a cyclist, crashed through a fence, and hit concrete bollards on a park green. Sims’ £22,000 1.8 litre Astra convertible was written off in the accident so it was hardly a minor scrape he had.He argues that he “passed” a Specsavers eye test, and yet he could not read a number plate at the legal 20.5 metre limit at the scene of the accident. And I know that if my foot slips off a pedal for any reason, it doesn’t press down hard and continuously on another!

But it would appear that the police are the ones who are at fault:

“There’s no justice,” [Sims] said…

“Fifty years I’ve been driving… down the M11 and the M25 north circular – and I have never had a scrape…

“All the police want to do is to stop me driving because I look old. They are trying to get me off the road…

“I’m a prisoner in my own home now. These four walls are a prison to me.

“Without that car I am lost. I have got a bus pass yes, but I have to walk around to the bus stop and I can’t do that.”

His son said:

It’s disgraceful. They didn’t have to crucify him but they did – they intimidated him.

Well, I’ve got news for Mr Sims and son. The way he drove 50 years ago is NOT a measure of how he drives now. At 93, he IS old, and it is highly likely that his foot “slipping off the brake” is intimately connected with that. In any individual’s case, there comes a point where sympathy and compassion has to be overtaken by common sense, and Jim Sims has just discovered that point.

It’s really frightening sometimes. I have a late-middle aged pupil whose eyesight worries me. I’ve already made him go to the opticians and get a new prescription, and yet his ability to read a number plate at 20.5 metres is still borderline. He can read it – I wouldn’t be teaching him otherwise – but add another metre or two and he can’t. This causes problems with him anticipating situations, because road signs are blurred to him until they are within his 20-25 metre range. That’s not very far when you are travelling at 60 or 70mph and need to take the next exit, and it says to me that 20.5 metres is nowhere near far enough for the roadside test.

This pupil is desperate for his licence, and in spite of my talks about monitoring his vision and not driving if it gets any worse, I know he will continue to drive no matter how bad his eyesight gets – and as I say, it has already deteriorated to the point where it is right on the limit. I shudder to think that he might still be driving in even 10 years time, let alone in 40!

Jim Sims has not been banned for life. Perhaps he should have been, and at 93 – which just emphasises the likely difference between driving now and driving 50 years ago – it is perhaps as good as a lifetime ban. But he has simply been told he must pass a driving test if he wants to continue driving.

If Mr Sims is as good as he claims to be, then perhaps passing the test again will only keep him off the road for a few months, and by the end of summer he could be back behind the wheel – hopefully in something a bit smaller than a 1.8 litre pratmobile..

But somehow, I doubt it.

Elderly drivers have simply got to accept that the chances of their skills declining dramatically overnight are far greater than the same thing happening to a younger driver, simply because of their age. Being old is a risk in itself in many aspects of daily life, and especially so when operating moving equipment. It doesn’t matter what younger drivers (or any other drivers) “do” on the roads. What matters is why they do it, and simply being unable to cut it due to reaching 80- or 90-plus is a distinct situation with proven dangers.

Tailgating And Middle Lane Hogging: Another Update

10/06/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Bad Drivers, News

This one made me laugh. Nottingham City Council plans to get in on the act when the new careless driving laws come into force in July by having a mobile camera travel around trying to catch drivers in the act.

The article begins:

Road hogs, tailgaters, and those who perform U-turns on roads without warning put others at risk through their poor driving.

U-turns without warning? Perhaps the council has realised that its idiotic approach to road works and road closures is so frustrating to motorists that there is money to be had if it can therefore catch them trying to find alternative routes.

If it really wanted to make some money out of dangerous U-turns and other inconsiderate behaviour, all it would have to do is track every taxi in the city. They’d collect enough money to pay off the National Debt inside six weeks.

Nottingham City Council needs to get its priorities straight and sort out the mess it has caused by sanctioning unlimited road works first, before it starts trying to twist the knife further into the ribs of the motorist.

Learner Driver “Panicked” And Caused 70mph Police Chase

10/06/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Bad Drivers, News

Michael (or Mitchell, in some stories) Gough, 24, had his driving test booked. According to his story to the courts, his mother’s car had broken down and she was unable to take him to his test, so he decide to drive there himself in a BMW.

For reasons which haven’t been explained, the plates on his BMW (it doesn’t say whose car this was… EDIT: apparently it was a high-powered BMW, and it belonged to Gough) were actually the ones for his father’s Fiat (that isn’t explained, either). A police patrol car flagged this discrepancy up to the officers within, so the officers tried to flag Gough down. When they asked him to open the door he floored it and embarked upon a 70mph chase through 30mph zones. He ended up smashing into a parked car, and was caught as he tried to do a runner.

This specimen’s lawyer explained that:

…his actions were out of character: “[Gough] was very anxious to take his test. When he was stopped he made a decision which was totally out of character – it is baffling that he behaved this way,” adding that his decision to drive away from police was, “foolish”.

Let’s just recap what Gough was guilty of:

driving whilst uninsured
failing to stop for the police
driving on false plates
breaking the speed limit
being involved in an accident due to his own dangerous driving
attempting to leave the scene of an accident
trying to resist arrest

For someone who was acting “out of character” he sure chose a good way to experiment, didn’t he? The report continues:

It’s not yet clear why the number plates had been swapped over, but we do know it was a police search for a stolen BMW in the area that lead to police attempting to pull him over.

So there is also the suspicion of a stolen the car with false plates being used for the proposed driving test!

So, Gough hasn’t passed his test and yet he owns a “high-powered” BMW. It had as-yet unexplained false plates that alerted the police. Gough was prepared to drive off (and if he knew he had false plates, that provides something of a more valid reason than the pathetic “out of character” claim by his lawyer). He leapt from the car while it was still moving – a favoured skill of the car thief – to try and run away (you don’t do that without having had practice). The photograph of him shows him wearing a hoodie and with what looks like a fag cupped in his hand. He has been banned for 30 months and given a suspended prison sentence.

Unfortunately, it appears that he is a father. God help the kid with a role model like this to look up to.

On The Subject Of Careless Driving (And Old Drivers)…

10/06/2013

DOAADI

ADI, Bad Drivers, News

This story reports how James Sims, a 93-year old driver, has been banned from driving for 6 months after he hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, and continued to do so. He shot across a busy road, narrowly missed a cyclist, and crashed through a park fence. Tests carried out by the police at the time of the accident showed that he also had defective eyesight (i.e. he failed the eyesight test).

PC Andy Sumner of Chelmsford Road Policing Unit, said: “Essex Police are dealing with more instances where motorists are driving after a point in their life when they are not fit to do so through mobility, reactions, eye sight, or the combination of medications…”

The six-month ban is a joke – he should be banned permanently. However, the court has ruled that he must pass an ordinary driving test in order to regain his licence, so in some respects it is perhaps as good as a lifetime ban. But on the other hand, there are some unfortunate souls out there with ADI badges who “specialise” in putting this kind of person on the road in the first place. And that makes you wonder who is the real guilty party when some old or infirm drivers have accidents.

In a completely separate, but almost identical incident, a 92-year old driver, Ernest Glover, was killed when he shot out of a private road and forced a collision involving another vehicle. Police have concluded that he, too, hit the wrong pedal.

PC [David] Pygott said this involuntary acceleration was common in elderly people driving cars with automatic gears, as Mr Glover had been.

There is more than just coincidence involved here. Fortunately, and unlike in the Cassie McCord case, and the Neil Colquhoun tragedy, no innocent party was killed. But there are numerous other examples of harm caused by these elderly fools. Far too many examples, in fact.

It’s obvious that this serious problem with elderly drivers just won’t go away. And it makes you wonder when something sensible is going to be done about it instead of allowing the bleeding hearts to get their own way all the time.

Village With Eight Speed Limits, Councils With Eight Brain Cells

10/06/2013

DOAADI

News, Roadworks

Most people who live in Nottinghamshire know that the Nottingham City and County Councils currently hold the top two positions in the League Of Biggest ******** (fill in the blanks, and feel free to add or remove a couple to make your favoured word fit) On The Entire Planet.

Two years ago, one (or possibly both) of them decided to allow National Grid to commence gas main replacement at multiple sites simultaneously. By “multiple”, I mean dozens of them. They also allowed Morgan Siddall to start doing something with the electrical cables – also at multiple (but different) sites – at the same time. They sanctioned this just as work started on Phase II of Nottingham’s world-ranked national joke known as “The Tram”. It has been complete chaos ever since, with occasional peaks of traffic gridlock that you couldn’t imagine in your wildest dreams.

All of the mentioned work is currently still in progress – almost two years after it started. National Grid in particular seem to have abandoned the myriad holes with plastic barriers and coiled yellow tubing that it has dug, though it is still digging new pits, and one simply has to guess at what year they’re likely to complete the work and put the pavements back to the way they were, and pack away all their temporary traffic lights and road closure signs.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the Highways Agency has begun its massively overdue widening work on the A453.

But that’s not all. Latest problems motorists have to deal with in an around Nottingham – above and beyond everything I’ve listed above – include: unpredictable road closures for “emergency bridge repairs” on Clifton Bridge; unpredictable road closures for resurfacing work near the Nottingham Knight roundabout; random weekend road closures as the County Council in particular continues its Jihad against any tree older than about 5-6 years, lest a twig should fall on a child; huge holes with steel-reinforced sides which last for months at a time and which appear in unpredictable locations; totally unnecessary “upgrading” of traffic lights at numerous junctions; building companies engaged in construction of those ugly, modern housing developments putting up completely over-the-top temporary lights for weeks or months at a time; any two-bit labouring firm putting up temporary 3- or 4-way lights for any reason they feel like just to massage inferior egos; etc. Most people who live around here would agree that the City and the County is in a complete, incompetently managed mess.

So it should come as little surprise to hear that Zouch, – pronounced “zoosh”, a village in Nottinghamshire with a population 53, and which is less than about three quarters of a mile long – has 8 speed limit changes to contend with. It didn’t used to have. There used to be just three: 60mph leading into it, 40mph while you were there, and 60mph out of it again.

The BBC report quotes some five-year old as saying:

Originally the majority of the main road – the A6006 – was 60mph. In 2005, a 50mph limit was imposed to the east of Zouch as part of an accident remedial scheme.

At the same time a 40mph limit was imposed through the village. The aim of the scheme was to manage speed which had been identified as a contributory factor in incidents.

Last year, a 30mph speed limit was introduced to cover the built area. This is similar to the situation in Hathern where a 30mph speed limit exists with a 40mph buffer.

This nonsense implies that the route in question was an accident black spot, when it definitely wasn’t. Sure, it’s was danger route for motorcycles, but it still is because they don’t obey speed limits in the first place and it is a favoured drag strip of theirs.It wasn’t known for a significant number of accidents involving cars or pedestrians, and Zouch’s small population of “53” (i.e. less than a bus full) isn’t the result of any previous vehicular carnage.

The simple fact is that Nottingham’s incompetent councils have cut speed limits on dozens of roads. Some councils in the UK spend their time on other pointless issues. Nottingham’s councils’ specialist subject is “cutting and changing speed limits”. The ridiculous situation in Zouch – which is a hindrance and a danger to 99% of those who encounter it – is merely a part of that, and not some urgently needed action. It’s just a case of spotty-faced kids in new jobs sitting round flipcharts in team meetings for too long coming up with pointless changes.

Nottingham’s councils appear to have a major issue with traffic inasmuch as everything they do is clearly designed either to have a negative impact on the motorist, or to create more traffic hold-ups per se. Nothing they sanction has any urgency about it, and quite frankly, if ever they do suddenly expedite something it is only after a noticeable period of almost deliberate inconvenience to the motorist. I’m fairly certain that the Police have had to get involved in order to get things resolved more quickly on more than one occasion, and yet the morons at the two councils still don’t seem to have got the message. Any changes to speed limits or new road works is obviously geared to cause as much inconvenience to the motorist as possible.

Category - News