Diary Of An ADI

Doing a bit of forum surfing, I came across this post. It is titled “Disturbing news”:

Ive recently heard about an adi who qualified a few months ago, and has only now received their CRB form.

I was under the impression that the CRB check was done before training starts.

The disturbing news, is that the adi could be a convicted rapist and was allowed to teach.

Is this another example of DSA incompetence?

I’ve emboldened the important bit. The post seems to be saying that a suspected convicted rapist became an ADI. Everyone else who read the post on the forum in question thought so, too.

The original poster then responded:

The adi is in fact a female.

The point I was trying to make was that the adi could have been a rapist or other undesireable had been allowed to teach, before the DSA knew about it.

So, the claim in the original was a badly worded ‘what if?’ scenario. But I think the point is well made – though not quite how it was originally intended. How the hell do some of these people become and remain ADIs? They can’t write or express themselves clearly, and they are prepared to use something as extreme as rape as a lever to have a go at the DSA? It isn’t as if they have proof that the underlying story – minus the poorly presented libel – is true.

I’ve recently sent my ADI renewal in because my current one expires at the end of this month. I did it online – you have to give your CRB check number (and pay by credit/debit card), then send a copy of the completed application with a passport photo to the DSA by post. The CRB check has to be completed some months previously if you want to be sure of having it before your registration is due.

So, I can’t see how the story can be true – and certainly not in the way it has been reported here.

But I have to wonder what exactly would the problem be if it were true? Obviously, it isn’t a good thing – but nor is it the end of the world. It isn’t like anyone can get away with it. It would certainly make you wonder at the motives and suitability of the ADI in question, who knew (or should have known) full well that you need a fresh CRB check before you can apply for a licence or a renewal of it. But this isn’t quite what the person who made that post was getting at.

A reader sent me this link from an American AOL news site.

A teenager in Pittsburgh, Pa, passed his test – then promptly drove into the test centre. And I mean in through the front door, lobby, and finally somewhere out of shot of the security cameras.

There’s video footage of his first lone journey.

One thing I noticed: although it is American, the stock photo of the L plate taped to the car (shown here) appears to be British!

EDIT: Ooops. Not American – it’s a UK site.

I was driving to my evening lesson last night along the Nottingham Road between Gotham and Clifton (5.45pm). Just before Clifton, there is a small link (Barton Lane) on the left, which joins the A453 to Nottingham Road – it is famously used a a rat run by people attempting to skip the queues on the A453 at the Crusader Island.

Anyway, Nottingham Road has a national speed limit. I was cruising along, and about half a mile in advance was already watching the traffic coming out of Barton Lane (it’s flat farmland all around). As I got cloer and closer, you had the usual “last minute” merchants desperate not to have to wait a few seconds longer (mainly vans).

But the prat in the silver Audi (reg. no. LX08 XGA ) forced me to slam on my brakes – there was absolutely no way he was safe to go. I’m pretty sure that apart from his genetic abnormality (possessed by ALL Audi drivers), he did it because “it was only a learner”.

Behaviour like this causes deaths. It is virtually attempted murder – a new driver or learner (if it hadn’t have been me driving) could have reacted entirely differently, and with far more serious results. These people ought to be taken off the roads permanently.

I had a day off today and went off to Wiltshire to do some shopping and a few other things.

I was mindful of one of my recent posts about first time passers being safer drivers as I was travelling on the M69 back to Nottingham (actually, the very start of the M69 where the M6 joins it at Walsgrave). There I was, happily driving along on a near empty carriageway, when a silver Ford Galaxy ( reg no. S171 SHJ ) nearly pulled out in front of me without reason (the lanes don’t merge: they just join, so it goes from 2 lanes to 4 lanes).

I slammed on my brakes and it dipped back in, and then the idiot pulled out properly this time, obviously thinking I had slowed down to give way!

I watched the Galaxy over the length of the M69 to the M1 repeatedly pulling out in front of other cars without signalling – the driver seemed to want to stay in the left lane, but was travelling faster than everything in that lane. At the M1 junction, the Galaxy overtook one last lorry – but decided to slow right down to do it, which meant I had to again brake and fall in behind the lorry.

The last I saw, the Galaxy was going into Leicester Forest services. As I glanced over, I saw the diminuitive form of a blonde woman (designer sunglasses, black clad) sitting arched forward, white knuckles gripping the wheel, staring fixedly ahead at the car she was tailgating.

I wonder how many goes she had at the test before passing?