Place: Wallasey
Reason for fail: N/A
Jack left the test centre, got onto the main road, and a few seconds later, encountered a pedestrian crossing. The lights were flashing amber, and there was slow moving traffic.
He slowed right down, and as things started moving again, he brought his clutch up too quickly, and stalled.
Jack's reaction was to hit the brakes. In his mirror, he could see the vehicle behind him have to stop quickly.
"That's it", he thought. "Game over."
Convinced he'd failed, Jack continued around the test route. Since he'd already failed, he just got on with it and didn't try too hard.
Half an hour later, he pulled into the test centre, and the examiner said "That's the end of the test. I'm pleased to tell you that you've passed."
Jack's jaw dropped. He'd stalled, and the person behind him had to brake. Why hadn't he been given a serious fault?
To answer that question, we need to go back to a previous post.
http://howtofailyourdrivingtest.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/righting-wrongs.html
On that occasion, the stall occurred at a roundabout. Once again the panic response to the stall was to brake, and once again people behind had to brake. But look at what was marked on the test sheet...
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Use of Mirrors - Change speed
Jack thought he'd failed because he could see in his mirror that the person behind had to slow down. And that meant he hadn't failed. He checked his mirror as he was stopping. So instead of getting a serious fault for not looking in his mirror before suddenly stopping, he got a minor fault for moving away under control.
