I can barely write this legibly in my haste to get it up on here! It’s one of those stories whose author is so glaringly immature that it provides you with the equivalent of the Philosopher’s Stone when you disagree with the point being made.
I found this link from this is Kent online newspaper. The reporter’s name is Sam Inkersole, and he is 22 years old according to what he has written. His article is entitled “L Plates Are Driving Me Mad Here”.
He explains that since he started working in the town, it has become “abundantly clear, and increasingly annoying” to him that “there are a lot of learner driver companies in Sevenoaks”.
…and that means a lot of learner drivers clogging up the roads with their stalling, non-indicating, not moving off when there is no traffic from the right and nearly causing accidents.
I value my no-claims bonus, currently approaching four years.
Wow. Four years on the road, and an expert already.
The simple fact is that if learners are “nearly” causing accidents, it is the jackass behind who is at fault – not the learner. If someone doesn’t go when you think they were going to, it is YOUR fault if you drive into them as they remain stationary. So in that respect he is right to worry about his no claims – because if he DOES drive like a jackass straight into one of these learners, it’ll be HIS fault – not theirs.
But he asks us to bear with him – he has a point to make. Let’s see what it is:
Sevenoaks seems to be busy with cars at most times of the day… It can’t be easy for learners.
Maybe this is where their trepidation comes from. Sevenoaks is not the easiest place to drive when you are qualified, let alone learning.
I refer to the “danger junction”, the Bat and Ball crossroad, and the Seal Hollow Road/St John’s Hill junction.
Right. So we have a busy town with a busy junction (which is quite possibly on the test route). But apparently we’re only talking about Sevenoaks, so the hundreds of other towns and cities across the country which also have “danger junctions” are irrelevant to this naïve young person whos is probably revelling in his first “proper” job.
But, bless him. He has a solution to the problem:
My solution would be to let them learn in the villages nearby, get them used to driving on quiet roads that can also be very tricky as practice, then ease them in.
Don’t just throw them into town where they will only feel worse about the whole driving experience and have their confidence shot.
I laughed hard when I read this. This is what 99% of those instructors will be doing with their pupils already (except perhaps for the villages part). In fact, the residents of the side streets (and quiet villages) are probably already apoplectic – far more so than this little lamb – about learners clogging up their streets and “stalling”.
This juvenile actually seems to think instructors take learners out to the busiest, hardest junctions on the first lesson!
I suppose he should be reminded:
- the ink is still wet on HIS licence
- learners have to learn somewhere
- HE learnt somewhere
The most obnoxious person, in my opinion, is the one who believes that no one else should be permitted the same opportunities THEY had.
It’s worth pointing out that not many learners drive headlong into other people, mainly because they have an instructor with them. They don’t often indicate incorrectly – far less often, in fact, than expert drivers like young Master Inkersole, who contribute significantly to making “danger junctions” what they are.