My God!!!! There's a car coming from the right!!!

Date: October 2012
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Control - Steering.

Cassie failed because she steered into the kerb as she approached a roundabout near a place called Thurstaston. Really though, the issue isn't what she was doing with her hands, it was what she was doing with her eyes.

When you arrive at a junction (a roundabout is a junction!), ideally, you'll have done everything you need to do before you get there. If you arrive at the right speed, in the right road position, in the correct gear, then when you look right and decide whether it's safe to go or not, it will be easy for you. To sort all that stuff out, you need to look where you're going.

The reason Cassie looked right instead of where she was going? Well because she was nervous. That's just what nervous drivers tend to do. And then, if there's a car coming from the right, they tend to just keep looking at the oncoming car, and panicking. And that's just what Cassie did. So she bumped into the kerb because she'd drifted out to the right as she approached.

Documents

Date: August 2008
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: N/A

My previous post reminded me of something that happened a couple of years back.

I turned up at my pupil's house on test day to find him tearing his hair out. James had all his stuff together a few days earlier, then come the day itself, his license was just nowhere to be found. I spent about 45 minutes with James, trying to help him look.

James had a toddler son, and thought the license might have been picked up by tiny fingers. We looked in all the obvious places, and all sorts of obscure ones too. We looked in the fridge. In the washing machine. In the bins. Down the back of the sofa.

But eventually we had to admit defeat. I went home and James failed to turn up for his test. I didn't have the heart to charge him for my time. He did lose his test fee though.

At the test centre, an examiner would have walked out into the waiting room, called James' name out, got no response, waited for the mandatory five minutes, then gone back into the office and put the kettle on.

The license never was found. James had to apply for a replacement, and had to pay to rebook his test. Fortunately, he passed on that next attempt.

A chain of circumstances

Date: October 2012.
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Reverse Park (road) - Control

Sharon failed her test yesterday. I was sititng in on the test, and watched as the examiner allowed her a generous amount of time to get the car close to and parallel with the kerb, but eventually, after repeatedly failing to get within about 4 or 5 feet of the kerb, he asked her to drive on.

Sharon also got another serious fault right at the end of the test for lack of observation at a junction, but I'd like to focus on the reversing exercise for this post.

The story here goes back to before the test even began. I'd just washed my car prior to picking her up for her pre-test lesson when I got a message from Sharon asking what documentation she needed to bring along with her. Since I was only a couple of minutes away, I didn't answer. I just went to pick her up. She and her boyfriend were in a state of turmoil. They'd turned their house upside down, but could not find the paper counterpart to her license. They thought it was at her Mum's house, and her Mum was busy looking for it and would call if she found it.

When you present yourself for a driving test (or your theory test for that matter), you MUST bring both parts of your driving license. The photocard and the paper counterpart. If you're one of those rare birds that has an old style license without a photocard, you MUST provide photographic evidence of your identity, such as a passport. Without this your test will not go ahead.

Driving tests can be nerve racking things. It pays to make sure you have all your documentation available well before your instructor knocks on your door. The last thing you need is to be frantically scrabbling around for your documents at the last minute.

Anyway, Sharon was pretty sure it was at her Mum's and we went out on the pre test lesson. Sharon was actually driving quite well, all things considered.

Twenty minutes in, her phone rang. We parked up and she answered it. It was her Mum. The license had been found, but we'd have to go and get it. She couldn't come to us. And so off we went from New Brighton to Moreton. And then back to Wallasey test centre. To get from Wallasey to Moreton takes only about 15 minutes. To get there and back takes around half an hour.

So that was the pre test lesson. Normally, I'd have given the reversing exercises a quick once over and if there was a problem, we'd do a bit of work on it to try to sort things out, but this time, there just wasn't time.

What caused her to fail was as much as anything, a lack of organisation.

How to turn a drama into a crisis!

Date of Test: August 2012
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Turn in Road, Observation; Move off, Safely.

Carrie Ann was nervous. She always is when what she's doing is put under scrutiny. She's never liked tests of any kind, and the Driving test was something she'd been dreading.

Still despite her fear, she was prepared to have a go, and so it was that in August 2012, she presented herself at Upton driving test centre for her second attempt.

Generally, she coped well with the drive but two things happened that caused her to fail.

Firstly, she did the reversing component of the turn in the road by looking out of her front windscreen instead of looking where she was going. This meant she was far more likely to bump into the kerb, but more importantly, if anything had been behind her, like a pedestrian or cyclist, she would not have seen them. She picked up a serious fault for observation.

I was sat in the back for this one, and I could see the examiner's test sheet. He didn't actually mark the fault until the end of the test, so I hoped he might just mark it as a minor fault. Perhaps if the second thing hadn't happened, he would have.

The second thing was a right turn at the end of a one way street in Irby.

Carrie Ann was unsure of herself here. Moving to the right hand side of the road often feels wrong even though it's the correct thing to do if you're turning right. But, slightly hesitantly, she got herself in the right place. The junction offers good visibility to the left, but it's not quite as open from the right.

Carrie Ann moved forward far enough to get a clear view to the right. The road was clear to her left, but there was a bus approaching from the right. This bus was a fair distance away, and there was a gap for her to get into. She attempted to move away, but had forgotten to change into gear one. As she brought her clutch up, the car stalled.

Carrie Ann panicked and pressed her brake pedal. This caused her to stop in the middle of the road, and forced the bus to have to stop. Eventually, she got the car running, put the car into gear one, made sure it was safe to move off, and off she went.

Most people have a misconception. That misconception is that you move away by bringing your clutch up. But what you should really do is get your footwork sorted before you move away. Us instructors call it setting your gas and finding your bite. Pressing the accellerator provides the engine with the power it needs to move a ton of metal from a standing start. The clutch controls that power. So when you move away, you do it by keeping your feet still. Releasing the handbrake will make the car move smoothly forward, even if you're in second gear.

But everyone stalls from time to time. If you want to really cause a problem to other people with your stall, you should slam on your brakes as well.

Alternatively, what you can do is put your clutch down and start your engine. If you stalled because you brought your clutch up, make sure it's still safe to go, and just move away without bringing your clutch up. If you stalled because you were in the wrong gear, put the car into the right gear, make sure it's still safe to go, and move away withough bringing your clutch up.

One of the BIG rules!

If you've somehow ended up in the wrong lane, and you don't have the time and space to safely move into the lane you want to be in, go the wrong way.

On your driving test, if you do happen to go the wrong way, you won't get a fault for it, unless you try to go the wrong way up a one way street, or onto a motorway or something. It just counts as a misheard instruction, and the examiner will then modify the test route or ask you to make a couple of turns to get you back on the same route.

In life, forcing your way agressively and late into a different lane is generally considered bad driving. It's generally safer to go the wrong way, then turn around in a side street or something.

This can also be a get out of jail card of sorts.

Here's how:

You're travelling down a street, and have been asked to turn right at the end of the street. You position yourself just to the left of the centre line, but as you get to the give way lines, you realise it's a one way street, and that you should have positioned yourself right over to the right hand side of the road.

At this point, you're failing your test. If you turn right, you'll get a serious fault. And rightly so. It's a dangerous thing to do. You could get someone coming alongside you on your right, and suddenly you're both attempting to emerge side by side into the same bit of road.

The solution is to change your signal, and turn left instead. Your road position is now correct for the manouevre you're undertaking. You will still get a fault marked on your test sheet, but it will be for an incorrect signal on approach. this is generally a minor fault, although it too can sometimes be serious if it adversely affects other road users.

The dreaded Hill Start

Date: July 2012
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Move off - Control

Poor Bill. A mandatory part of the driving test (unless you live in Cambridgeshire) is the Hill Start.

Bill has done hill starts many many times without incident. Yet on his driving test, instead of moving off forwards, he rolled backwards into the kerb. The examiner has marked it as a serious lack of control.

There are two ways you can struggle on a hill start, in addition to the usual ways of picking up faults when you move away from anywhere. One is that the car is more likely to stall, and the second is that unless you've prepared to go properly before you release the handbrake, the car will roll backwards.

The structure to moving off is as follows:

1. Prepare
2. Observe
3. Move.

Us instructors use the acronym, POM. It's done in that order so that the last thing you do before you move is to get an up to date picture of what's going on around you.

To prepare, you select the appropriate gear, provide a bit of power with your gas pedal, bring your clutch up to biting point, and get your hand onto your handbrake. If you're moving away uphill, you should make sure you can feel the car pulling fairly strongly agaisnt the handbrake.

To observe, you look in your centre mirror, and check over your right shoulder. If you can't see out of your centre mirror because of obstructions, use your drivers side door mirror and check over your right shoulder.

To move, keep your feet still, and release your handbrake. If you've prepared correctly, the car will move away smoothly.

Didn't pass. Didn't fail....

Test Centre: Upton
Reason For Fail: N/A

This morning, at the crack of dawn, I got up, and picked up my pupil for his driving test.

We went through the manouevres, and did some tight slow roads to get him dealing with things defensively, and we got to the test centre at about 8:10 am.

There were 4 candidates on test, but only 3 examiners came out. One of them called me and my pupil to one side. One of the examiners had not been able to make it to work because of illness, and because it was the first test of the day, there hadn't been time to arrange cover.

Since there was no examiner to conduct the test, it could not go ahead.

Ouch! You could have had a lie-in!

I could. But I'd have missed out on being paid for the work.

You mean your pupil had to pay you?

Well yes. I got up at half past 6, and gave him a lesson, and I couldn't have taught anyone else in the time he was supposed to be on test, so in that situation, us instructors will expect payment.

But doesn't that mean your pupil lost out?

No. My pupil will be given a free re-test, and any expenses he incurred, such as the money he paid me, and compensation if he'd taken time off work to do the test are reimbursed by the Driving Standards Agency. It was their responsibility to ensure they had an examiner available, and because they failed to fulfill their responsibilities, they had a duty to provide an alternative date, and to compensate the candidate for any losses he incurred.

So how do you go about claiming the money back then?

You need to go to this webpage - http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_196463?CID=Motoring&PLA=url_mon&CRE=driving_test_expenses

You'll find a link to a pdf document which tells you more about it and includes an application form.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_196447.pdf

Simply print off the form, complete it, and send it to the address shown in the first link.

Poor at Parallel Parking? Practice Precise Positioning!

It's been a while since I had anyone fail! This is a good thing of course, but it's also meant I've had little to say on this blog for the last few months.

Test Centre: Upton

I was sat in the back for this one. My pupil, Neil, was relaxed and confident on the pre test lesson, but when it came down to the real thing, he got a bit of the fear in him. And it showed.

He was asked to do a parallel park in Sparks Lane, Thingwall and ended up putting his wheels up on the pavement. The examiner let him try to sort it out for a little while, then when he couldn't correct it, asked him to move on.

The mark Neil got on his test sheet was a serious fault, reverse parking (road) - Control.

We'd actually done a parallel park as part of the pre test lesson. Neil did it quite well. He didn't do it in the structured way I'd taught him, but what he did do seemed to work for him so I left it at that. Shame really. If he'd made a mess of it, we would have done a bit more on it, and he might not have got it wrong when it mattered.

If you do get it wrong, and touch the kerb, you haven't at that point failed your test. Generally if you try to reverse further you're going to make matters worse, so if you do touch the kerb, put the car into first gear, Check it's Clear Around You!!!!, and correct it by going forwards. Often, if you can fix it, the examiner will mark it as just a minor fault.

The clues are subtle, but they're there.

Today, Laura failed her test because she couldn't work out how to deal with an unusual and complex junction.

Here's how the junction looks on Google Earth:

Laura was heading up the road towards the semi-circular junction, with the ultimate aim of turning right when she reached the dual carriageway at the top of the picture.

Here's how it looks on streetview:

As you approach the junction, it's not particularly obvious how you should deal with it. You really shouldn't turn right, but there are no no entry signs to help you. Just one solitary bollard with a keep left arrow on it.

This bollard is a bit more visible in this next picture:

A bit...

Laura came up to this bit too quickly, and didn't really have time to either read the complexities of the junction, or to safely assess whether it was safe to proceed. She did turn left, but it all fell short of the standard of driving required.

Having turned left, she was immediately confronted by a right turn onto a dual carriageway. The central divide is narrow, and ideally, you would want to complete the manouevre in one go, rather than putting yourself in a vulnerable position, half way across the road.

This is one of the most complex and challenging junctions on any of the Wirral test routes. But it is understandable, if you break it down into it's constituent parts.