Had a pupil on test recently who encountered an unusual situation (well, not unusual for the area it occurred in, but unusual for someone taking their test). She was driving along and suddenly thought there was something seriously wrong with the car. She had no idea what to do.
The examiner explained to me what happened. Driving through a particular area they were suddenly surrounded by ‘about 20’ Police cars, Policemen running all over the place on foot, and the noise the pupil thought was the car was the local Police helicopter which – in the examiner’s own words – was nearly sat on the roof.
It reminded me of another Police incident sometime last year. A pupil had asked me a while prior to her test what to do if there were Police cars. We covered it (i.e. Police cars coming up behind, and at traffic lights), but not an actual Police incident where a house raid is obviously underway. It’s not exactly something you can simulate during lessons – particularly seeing as every one would be different. I remember saying something like ‘don’t worry about it too much because it won’t happen on your test’.
Well, it did. So that’s twice!