3 point turn

Date: March 2006
Test Centre: Ellesmere Port
Reason for fail: Serious fault, turn in road - observation

Michael pulled up on the left here, and the examiner asked him to turn the car around to face the other way.

Michael did it properly until just before he'd finished. He'd completed reversing, and got ready to move forward, but didn't check to see if it was clear to his left before he went. There could have been something coming, and the examiner had to give him a serious fault.

So if Michael had looked left he'd have passed his test?

In this case, apart from a handful of minor faults, that missed observation was the only thing he did wrong, and he would have passed if he'd taken a moment to look.

I failed my first one too!

Date: 1995
Test Centre: Ellesmere Port
Reason for fail: Junctions - Turning Left

I came to this junction on my first driving test. Back in 1995, Stanney Lane had a 40mph speed limit. It's now a 30mph limit but people tend to go a bit quicker than that sometimes, because it's a wide straight road.

I got to the junction, looked right, saw a car in the distance, turned out to the left anyway.

Seemingly moments later, the car that had been in the distance was overtaking me, and since he'd been affected by my pulling out, I got a serious fault.

Gutted mate! What should you have done?

It didn't matter that the car that overtook me was probably doing more than 40 miles an hour. I should have had another look, seen that he was approaching quickly, and waited for him to pass before emerging.

I did pass second time though!