The roundabout of doom!

Date: August 2011
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Use of mirrors - change direction

Poor Steve.

He managed to pick up two serious faults on his driving test. One of them at the same roundabout where he failed last time, although for a different reason.

He did, however, manage to fail at a different roundabout for more or less the same reason that he failed on the other roundabout last time, if you see what I mean?

Steve has been nervous throughout his training, and although he's now relaxed as a driver, he's still nervous when under test conditions.

This time, he was asked to turn right at the Sainsbury's roundabout. A car came from the right and turned left rather late. Steve was spooked, and stopped with the nose of the car stuck out into the roundabout, causing other vehicles to have to move around him.

To compound this, he then stalled, which moved him even further on to the roundabout, before finally moving away.

As he was heading back to the test centre, during the "Independent driving" part of the test, Steve was asked to go straight ahead at the roundabout he stalled at on his previous attempt.

Steve joined the roundabout correctly, but somehow got mixed up about which way he was going. He moved right without checking his mirror, then moved back to the left, and then turned right (from an incorrect road position)

Uh oh! But how could Steve have done it better?

Both of these faults were down to nerves.

Nervous people rush. They approach things too quickly to be able to judge properly. If Steve had approached the first roundabout more slowly, he'd have had more time to assess what other road users were doing, and would not have panicked. If, after stopping, he'd moved away smoothly, instead of trying to do what I call "fleeing the scene of the crime", he might have got away with a minor fault.

As ever, if you're in the wrong position, just go the wrong way. You're not trying to get the examiner to his wedding or anything. He just marks your driving, not your ability to remember instructions. Even if Steve had been asked to turn right, once he had positioned himself to the left as he joined, the safest thing to do would be just to go a different way to what he'd been asked.

Righting wrongs

Date: January 2011
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Use of Mirrors - Change speed

This is a fairly busy roundabout between Greasby and Upton. It has a small niche of a road off to your right, that leads into a short dead end, where people sometimes park their cars. This causes people to signal late if they want to take the exit before the one that's being approached in the picture above.

Steve came to this situation on his driving test. Unsure of whether he had a safe gap, he didn't really get himself sorted out, and he stalled because he was going much too slowly for third gear.

Scott abruptly stopped the car, put his clutch down and his handbrake on. He started his engine, and put the car into gear one. Then he moved away safely. The abrupt stop caused the person behind to get very close, and they themselves had to do an emergency stop. Perhaps other people further back also had to stop very quickly.

OK. So everyone stalls now and again. How should you sort it out?

First thing to do was to check the mirror! Everyone gets it wrong from time to time, and if you do find yourself off the straight and narrow, you need to keep yourself safe. This means being aware of what's going on around you. Stopping suddenly may not be the best course of action, expecially approaching a roundabout, where the person behind you may well be looking right to see what's coming, instead of looking where they're going. In this case, what Scott should have done is put his clutch down, sort out first gear, and start his engine. Even if it meant going over the give way line a bit (the vehicle that caused Scott to panic had turned off to the left without signalling)

People stall for two main reasons. As Scott found, the car will stall if you slow down or stop in a a high gear, and the clutch up. The other time is when people move off, either bringing the clutch up too quickly, or in the wrong gear, or without enough revs. If you can minimise the effect your stall has on other road users, you're much more likely to get away with a minor fault than if you do something that causes other people to have to react sharply.

Busload of trouble...1

Date: 2009
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Use of Mirrors - Change speed

This isn't the actual bus. I don't have a video camera mounted on my car, recording tests. As far as I'm aware, such a thing would be frowned upon. I use google street view instead, and this picture is just to give you an idea that this one concerns a bus, just in case the title wasn't enough.

The bus was stopped at a bus stop as John approached it on his driving test. Having let off or on everyone that wanted to get on or off, the bus driver signalled right to say he wanted to move off.

John's reaction was instant! He was going to let that bus out! He braked sharply, and a man driving a van behind him had to brake even more sharply.

Not good. How could John have done it better?

Bus drivers are often working to a deadline.When they want to move away they signal right and often start to move slowly off. Then they check it's clear and if it isn't, they wait. the right signal doesn't give them the right to pull out in front of people. John should have checked his centre mirror, seen that it wasn't safe to stop, and carried on past the bus. If he'd checked his mirror, and the road had been empty behind him, he could of chosen to be courteous and allow the bus to move off, because he wouldn't have caused a danger to others.

Wrong lane blues

Date of Test: May 2011
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Use of mirrors - Change Direction

Karen was in the middle of the "independent driving" section of her driving test. She had been asked to turn left at this junction, but unfortunately ended up in the right hand lane. She realised that she was going the wrong way, and attempted to suddenly change lane, without looking in her left hand door mirror first.

A lorry was to her left, and the examiner hit the brakes, in order to avoid a collision. Not surprisingly, she got a serious fault for it.

So if she'd just gone right, she'd have passed?

Yes. The examiners mark your driving, not your ability to remember a series of directions. Everyone gets it wrong from time to time, and it's important that you do the safest thing, rather than just forcing your way into a different lane. You can always find a way to get back on track somewhere further on. If you do find yourself in the wrong lane, the first thing to do is to check your mirrors, so that you know how you will affect other people if you choose to try to correct it. If you have the time and space, a signal can tell people what you intend to do (but it doesn't give you the right to do it - have another look after you've signalled to see if other road users are giving you the space you need) If it's not safe to change lane, just keep in the lane that you're in, and go the wrong way. The examiner can then give you a couple of instructions to get you back on route.