Blog posts tagged ‘lessons’

According to a report carried out for the Department for Transport earlier this year, the most frequent factor associated with road accidents was failing to look properly.  This error was more frequent than speeding and was associated with 38% of accidents reported to the police, according to the Department for Transport’s Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: 2009 publication. It highlights the constant need to be aware of the risks of not looking properly when driving.  Something we know already but it does no harm to be reminded, especially as it’s something we as drivers have direct control over. 

From my experiences I know that many accidents occur at roundabouts, when the driver is looking to the right to see if there’s a gap to pull out into, all the while unaware that the car in front of them has stopped. This is likely to result in a rear end collision. Or maybe the driver is unaware that they are drifting out of their lane because they’re concentrating so hard on what’s coming from the right at the roundabout. This is something that occurs with learners, but also with more experienced drivers.

 Another time when you can see people not looking properly is when they get too used to a particular piece of road. It could be a quiet junction on an estate where “no one ever comes along this bit of road” so it’s easy to get complacent, and when someone does come along that bit of road the driver isn’t looking properly and pulls out into the path of another vehicle.

Or it could be something as simple as reversing out of a parking space in the supermarket car park and not making effective observations – possibly bumping into the person reversing out of the space behind you, who also isn’t looking properly.  A fairly regular occurrence.

If you want to avoid becoming one of the statistics on your lessons, or afterwards, remember to make sure you really know that the situation is clear before you act. Never assume that there isn’t anything there if you can’t see that to be the case. Always anticipate that there will be something coming until you know for sure that there isn’t. It’s always better to stop when you didn’t need to, than to go when you should have stopped.

Find out more from the RoSPA website:

During the course of driving lessons in Birmingham you’re bound to see any number of illegal acts committed by other drivers. Speeding, overtaking on the left, and parking on double yellow lines (most annoyingly outside Lloyds Bank by Kings Heath Test Centre!) to name a few.  But why do people do this? I guess there are many motivations for acting illegally whilst driving. Common excuses could include “I sped because I was late” or “I wanted to show my mates how quickly I can drive” or “I only parked there for a second while I nipped to the bank”. None of these excuses are valid, but some people take things a bit too far! Recently a London borough published some of the excuses that it had been given for driving offences. The excuses range from a UFO spotter having been forced to swerve into a bus lane to avoid a UFO, to someone believing he’d been hypnotised into parking illegally. My personal favourite however is this one: "I won't lie. I should know better than to speed on that stretch of road because I ran a woman over there last week."

Most learners I teach don’t have the opportunity to drive other than when on driving lessons. But some do get the benefit of being able to practise in their own/parent’s/partner’s car. These lucky few are able to gain experience of different road traffic situations more quickly and are generally ready to take their test earlier than those who haven’t had extra practice.  Some instructors feel that learners tend to pick up bad habits from their family and friends supervising them, but as long as the practice is taken alongside regular professional driving lessons then I don’t believe that this is the case.

Adding a younger learner to a policy can be prohibitively expensive. There are cheaper options available such as short term policies, held by the learner themselves. One such policy is offered by a company called Marmalade Provisional, who have a tie in with Halfords. They offer policies from as little as £90 per month although this does vary with location. I have checked with them, and for a learner with a Selly Oak B29 postcode, the cost would be £99.50 for one month, or £187.00 for two months.

I believe that in the run up to a test this type of policy can really give a learner an extra boost to their learning experience, raise their confidence and increase their chances of passing the test first time.

Click here for more details…

South Brum Driving School is pleased to be able to offer you the opportunity to learn to drive in an automatic car for the first time.  Although I don’t teach automatic lessons myself, I have teamed up with another instructor, who teaches automatics in the South Birmingham area.

So whether you live in Selly Oak, Moseley, Kings Heath, Northfield or any other surrounding areas, and you want automatic driving lessons, then please contact us, either by phone, text or email and I will put you in touch with Alan, who’s an experienced, high grade instructor, specialising in automatics.

Other areas covered include Harborne, Hall Green, Longbridge, Balsall Heath and anywhere in between.

With the swine flu virus starting to take a hold in the Midlands, we’re all becoming more conscious of the fact it could hit any one of us. The risk is increased the more people we come into contact with.  With this in mind, I now have a policy to use disposable disinfectant wipes at the end of each driving lesson, and thoroughly clean all areas of the car that a pupil may touch (steering wheel, gear lever, hand brake, door handles, indicator lever, windscreen wiper controls, seat adjustor bar, electric window buttons and all other ancillary controls and switches)   So please don’t be offended if at the end of your lesson as you walk away you see me set to work cleaning. It really isn’t anything personal, just a way to reduce the risk of cross contamination at this time of need.

Also, if you have symptoms of flu and we have a driving lesson booked then please call me to cancel - you won’t be charged for the lesson even if it’s short notice, so don’t worry about that.  

Fingers crossed for happy flu-free motoring!!