Category - News

This is an old story, However, it had a run of hits in 2017. DSA is now DVSA, of course. Note that links originally referred to are now dead and have been removed.

I noticed last week that on one forum posters were beside themselves over the case of a driving instructor who had raped a girl 25 years ago and only recently been brought to justice through DNA evidence. Not that it matters, he wasn’t an ADI at the time of the offence, and he has been rightly punished. However, it seems that the man was known personally to some of the correspondents and they are therefore connecting it with being an ADI.

This story is far more current, and relates to someone who was an instructor at the time of his crimes – in fact, using his position as an independent ADI as a staging post for his crimes.

Thomas Cook, 59, has been found guilty of sexual assault on two women aged 20 and 17. Both were his pupils at the time of the incidents.

Investigating officer Det Con Darren Street, of Milton Keynes CID, said: “Cook acted in a predatory fashion and targeted young women he was teaching to drive for his own gratification.”

I would hope that it goes without saying that Cook will no longer be deemed “fit and proper” to practice as an ADI by the DSA.

I’ve not seen any comments from other instructors on this story. Undoubtedly, if they latch on to it, it will be another slight on the “profession” – that’s the usual way of showing their anger. However, in my opinion, I think the public are used to seeing scumbags like Cook from all walks of life, and they’re not going to single out driving instructors just because of this case and stop taking lessons as a result.

We can wring our hands and demand that things like this must “never happen again” all we want. The unfortunate thing is, they WILL happen again, because the world has more than its fair share of scumbags like Cook.

This is a new one – or it would be, if you were likely to get away with it.

Reginald Garden was “off sick” from work with a “bad back” for 7 months. He used the sick period to train as a driving instructor. His company sacked him two weeks after he qualified as an ADI.

Garden was originally paid £8,000 for unfair dismissal, but that has been overturned on appeal. The appeals Judge said that Garden had “lied to his employers… and continued to take lessons even after being warned.”

Garden just wants to “move on” from the ruling.

Two things pass through my mind. The first is how someone so “ill” they couldn’t work could manage to complete the necessary ADI training. Sitting in a car is absolutely one of the worst things for a “bad back”, so it raises obvious question about the genuineness of the original reason for being off sick.

The second thing is one of the criteria for becoming an instructor (and remaining one). Being a “fit and proper” person, and all that.

I always assumed that lies and dishonesty would be included in that.

This is an old article, so bear in mind any recent changes to the rules.

A reader submitted this link concerning the new MoT rules which have come into force.

It’s a bit alarmist, claiming that the rules “may trash your car”. After all, at least two of the examples it cites – faulty ABS and faulty seat-belt pre-tensioners – are very important, and failing an MoT because they’re broken serves the owner right.

I mean, if you’re going to insist on owning a car, you automatically accept that you need to keep it in a condition that isn’t going to kill other people (including your passengers). If you can’t afford it – or if you disagree with that responsibility – then you also accept the consequences, and tough luck!

VOSA – the Vehicle and Operator Service Agency, who manage MoT regulations – will not fully implement the changes until April. So at least that gives people some time to get things sorted out.

The article advises buying a 90s banger if you want to avoid the costly electronic gizmo hassle. Unfortunately, it glosses over that other major MoT problem. RUST. Not to mention mechanical wear-and-tear.

I’m not sure what my view on the EU-driven legislation is, because it doesn’t really concern me. However, just because people can’t afford it, or don’t like EU-legislation of any kind, isn’t a reason for it to be wrong.

Mind you, cars should be roadworthy – and many aren’t. So in that respect, I know what my view is!

We’ve not had one of these for a while, but another association is getting itself all confused over pass rates.

On the blog I’ve linked to pass rates for all UK test centres between April 2010 and February 2011. These are intended as a guide, and they will change slightly with time. During the period covered, Bradford’s two test centres had pass rates of 30.7% and 29.4%, compared to the National Average at the same time of 46.4%.

The article here is going on about the pass rates at Bradford’s two centres between April and August 2011 – presumably someone showing how clever they are by requesting the data under FOI – which were 30.1% (down insignificantly on my data by 0.6%) and 35% (up significantly by more than 5%) respectively.

A local “leading driving instructor” appears to be claiming that test fails are guaranteed at certain times of day…

…due to poor parking by other motorists at junctions.

The local association says:

Certain routes are such, at particular times, that even a good driver has difficulty getting out of a junction because cars are parked so close to corners, they are bound to fail at those times.

The same spokesman adds:

I could take a pupil to another test centre in another area and they would pass.

How many times have I heard that! How many of my pupils have failed “because of someone else” over the years? However, another spokesman from the same organisation says:

…congestion experienced along the Heaton test route was also to blame for the high failure rate, as well as poor preparation by some candidates .

I think that last thing is getting a little closer to the real reason for overall low pass rates.

Hasn’t anyone drawn the obvious conclusion here that the pass rate is lower than most other places because of the quality of the candidates? And that the standard of parking these people are complaining about is simply an example of a vicious circle – anyone who passes is likely to end up behaving in exactly the same way?

I’ve mentioned this before, but if you look for the highest pass rate – for Mallaig, in Scotland (Google Map it) – you will see that it has less than a dozen roads and only two of them join in such a way that you could avoid having to perform a turn in the road somewhere. I reckon that the total length of roads there must amount to less than 10km. The pass rate is over 70%, and I’m certain that many of mine who fail first time here could well pass first time up there – but I can’t prove that or do anything about validating it… because I don’t live there! And nor do those test candidates in Bradford.

Now, I won’t explain this in any greater detail, but Bradford is NOT the same as Mallaig. Nor is it alone in having “tricky” roads or idiot members of the public to deal with. Most cities have those.

That second spokesman adds:

Parked cars, inconsiderate road users – new drivers are not prepared for these circumstances.

They bloody well should be prepared – that’s what we get paid for! The bottom line is that you have to prepare your pupils for whatever they are going to have to cope with both on the test and in real life. You can’t start whingeing about them failing just because they’re not good enough to pass.

By all means try and get people to park better. But don’t blame test failures for it, when the people you’re teaching are going to behave in exactly the same way the second they pass.

The Halifax Courier refers to it as “research”. I sometimes wonder if these local papers know what that word actually means?

Apparently, drivers with a heavy cold should “think twice about getting behind the wheel” – according to this “new research”.

Driving: The Essential Skills – effectively the learner driver syllabus – says:

Fitness to drive

Don’t drive if you’re feeling tired or unwell. Even a cold can make it unsafe for you to drive . If you find you’re losing concentration or not feeling well, keep your speed down and give yourself more time to react.

Drugs

Medicines – check any medicines you’re taking to see if it affects your ability to drive. Even medicines for coughs and hay fever can make you drowsy.

So, perhaps we can assume that by “research” they mean that someone read this book?

The “research” is by an insurance company (Young Marmalade). The article goes on to regurgitate what is already written plainly in The Essential Skills as if it has just discovered this all by itself!

The whole point of the article is shot down by the police, who also mentioned the medication people might be taking:

If there is an accident and if someone is not fit to drive, careless driving might be there, but we would have to have evidence.

The entire point of the “research” is summed up by the insurance industry’s “suspicions” that a lot of “prangs” happen while people are “under the weather”. So, another piece of astounding science, eh?