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.