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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.

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.

How to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

This is the junction of Church Street and Brighton Street in Wallasey. If you travel 100 yards further you will be right outside Wallasey test centre.

This is also the junction where Pete failed his test. As he approached the lights, they changed from green to amber. Pete had time to stop, but chose to accellerate through the lights. The examiner pressed the dual brake and stopped him, because there was a vehicle coming the other way that had been waiting to turn right. If Pete had gone through, he would have left the other driver stranded as cross traffic started to move.

The last one was about traffic lights too, wasn't it?

It was indeed! If you're approaching a red light, your course of action is clear. You get ready to stop. A green light is far trickier. What I advise my pupils to do is to recognise a green light as a hazard. As you come towards it, check your mirror. Don't wait for the light to change before you assess whether it would be safe to stop or not, particularly if you can see the lights have been green for a while. An amber light means stop, and although it's not always safe to brake hard if you're close to the lights when they change, if you can stop safely, you should.

Queue this side please!

Date: August 2011
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Response to signs/signals - Road Markings.

Mike would have passed if the lights had changed a couple of seconds earlier or later. That's just the way it goes sometimes. Here's what happened...

Mike was travelling towards Liscard along Wallasey Road. As he approached the traffic lights, they changed from green to amber.

Mike checked his mirrors, and saw there was someone behind him. Because of this, he braked in a way that meant he stopped, not behind the stop line, or even in the red bit that cyclists use. Mike stopped with the nose of his car on the pedestrian crossing bit.. He knows what he should have done, and can't explain why he decided to do what he did.

But what should he have done instead?

When you approach a green light, particularly if it's been green for a while, or if you don't know how long it's been on green, you should be prepared for the fact that it might change. Don't wait until it changes before you check your mirror. Check anyway, then if the light does change, you have the information you need to decide if it's safe to stop or not. Also, it's a good idea just to let the car roll through, with your feet covering the brake and clutch, rather than being on your gas pedal. If the light stays green, you can then just go back on the gas. Rolling through means the car goes just a few miles and hour slower. This feels far better from the passenger side. It shows you're aware of the hazard.

If there is a vehicle close behind you, it's sometimes safer just to keep going through, even with the light on amber, than it is to attempt to stop suddenly. Mike got caught between stopping and going. His indecision took him a few yards further than he should have been, and cost him his test pass.

You're not allowed to go that way!

Date: May 2006
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for Fail: Serious fault, Response to signs/signals - Traffic signs

Normally, it doesn't matter too much if you go the wrong way. As long as you do it correctly and safely, it doesn't really matter if you don't go the way you've been asked to go.

But there are exceptions. Attempting to drive onto a motorway is one of those exceptions. Attempting to enter a one way street from the wrong end will be looked upon in a poor light too.

In this case, Lindsey had come over from Liverpool for lessons because she was nervous about the heavy city traffic, and thought Wirral might be less intimidating. She was nervous on her test and got flustered as she approached a busy motorway intersection roundabout.

The examiner gave her a serious fault because she should have known that as a learner she wasn't allowed to drive on a motorway.

Always look before you leap

Date: June 2007
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Move off - Safely

This is the sort of road where an examiner might ask you to do an emergency stop. It's quiet. You can see a long way ahead and around.

The examiner asked Tim to do an emergency stop along this road. He gave the instruction, and Tim stopped promptly. The examiner then asked him to drive on. Tim got himself ready, and moved off. Unfortunately, a car was just starting to overtake him as he moved, and he hadn't checked around before releasing his handbrake.

So what observations should you make after doing an emergency stop?

You won't be parked at the side of the road. You'll be well away from the kerb. So it's important that you check that nothing is coming down your inside (a cyclist perhaps) and that nothing is overtaking you. Ideally you should look over both shoulders. Tim associated that blind spot check with moving away from the side of the road, but it also needs to happen here.

Is this a clue?

Date: June 2011
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Reverse Park (road) - Control.

John was asked to pull up on the left, and the examiner asked him to pull up alongside the parked car, and to reverse into the space behind it, parallel to and reasonably close to the kerb. John did the reverse, but because a part of the kerb was missing due to a driveway, he couldn't see quite where he was up to, and finished up a couple of feet away from the kerb.

At this point, the examiner ostentatiously looked out of his window at the kerb, and asked john if he had finished. John said that he had. Then the examiner made an obvious show of looking in his door mirror, and looked at John, asking, "Are you happy with that?" John agreed, and the examiner asked him to drive on.

But don't you have to get it right first time?

If you want to become a driving instructor, you have to do the parallel park on your advanced driving test, and you are expected to complete the manouevre without adjustment, but on the learner test, they're not as strict. If you find that you've ended up in the wrong place, you can drive forwards and correct things. But make sure you check around before you do. If you knock someone of his bike while doing it, you'll fail.

The examiner tried to give John a big clue that he wasn't happy with his position. Unfortunately, John, mainly because of nerves, failed to pick up on it.

When people are nervous, they rush.they want to get whatever it is that is making them nervous, over and done with.

Left? Which one?

Date: June 2011
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Turning Left - Observation

David was asked to take the next road on his left. There are two ways into the side road - The slip lane you can see with the parked cars in it, and a more conventional T-Junction, which is mainly used by traffic turning right into the side road.

Not being that familiar with Wallasey, David saw the "T" part of the junction, and turned left there. However, since the majority of people turning left there would use the slip road bit, and join the same bit of road that David was now going into, it was important that he looked left as he completed the turn. Unfortunately, he didn't do this, and the examiner had to give him a serious fault. Shame really, as he only picked up a handful of minor faults, and would have easily passed if it wasn't for this error.

Look where you're going!

Date: 2006
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Junctions - Observation

Busy town centre streets. Shops and offices. People want to go to and from here, and the islands to the left of the picture allows pedestrians to cross these busy roads one bit at a time.

Steve came to this junction, intent on finding out if there was anything coming from his right. The way was clear, so he emerged, only for the examiner to press the dual brake because there was a lady with a pushchair crossing the road to his left.

Well I'd fail him for that too! So why didn't he look where he was going?

It's a really common thing, both with learners and with experienced drivers. To look right is a natural thing. To look left is counter-intuitive, and I spend a lot of time getting people to focus most of their attention on where they are going. A lot of the time, that look right is useless, since all you can see is a wall or a hedge or a fence.

You must check it's clear to your right before you emerge, but really, the danger comes from the left, not the right. People cut corners when turning right into the junction you're coming up to. The road you want to turn into could have a car coming down on the wrong side of the road if there are parked vehicles forcing them out. And yes, there could be pedestrians crossing.

Look left, glance right.

Stop!!!

Date of Test: December 2010
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Response to signs/signals - road markings

You're on your driving test, and you come to this junction. There are some big clues to help you here. There's a solid white line marking the end of the road. There's the word, "STOP" written across the road before that solid line, and there's a big red octagonal sign displaying the word "STOP" in bold white letters.

You MUST come to a complete stop, and look both ways before you proceed. It's mandatory. You're breaking the law if you don't, and not stopping will certainly cause you to fail your driving test.

An uphill struggle.

Date of Test:August 2010
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: serious fault, Controls - Handbrake

This is Portland Street in New Brighton. At the top of the picture you can see a give way triangle. This is a junction that causes a lot of problems for people both when learning to drive, and when on test. Common faults are rolling back, stalling, and just generally panicking.

For Jenny, it was all three. First she stalled. Then she panicked. Then she rolled back. The examiner stepped on the footbrake for her.

Blimey! That's a nasty looking hill! How can you do it safely?

Ideally, when you're dealing with T Junctions, you want to have everything sorted out before you get to the give way line. If you get the speed right, and sort out first gear, you can often balance the car on the clutch, make sure it's clear, and move away with a bit of accellerator. Trying to move away up a steep hill with your foot on the brake is... well, difficult to say the least.

If you haven't had time to get everything sorted out, you still need to be ready to go before you try to go, so stopping, and applying your handbrake allows you to find your biting point on your clutch, and to get your right foot off the brake pedal and onto the accellerator.

Don't keep left!

Date of Test:  2008
Test Centre: Wallasey, Merseyside
Reason for fail:  serious fault, Response to signs/signals - road markings

As you approach this mini roundabout, the road widens and splits into two lanes. Normally, if you want to go straight ahead at a roundabout, you'd keep to the left, but here, arrows are painted on the road. They make the left hand lane exclusive to road users turning left. Everyone else should keep to the right.

Unfortunately, Rachel didn't read the arrow, and went straight ahead from the left hand lane. Occasionally, if queueing traffic makes the road markings impossible to see, the examiner will tell the candidate where to put themselves, but on this occasion, the road was clear, and she should have read it.

The danger in putting yourself in the left hand lane here is two-fold.

First of all, if another car, also intending to go straight ahead, had come alongside, to the right, there would be a risk of a side to side crash, as both cars attempt to squeeze into a single lane beyond the roundabout.


Secondly, if anyone was waiting to emerge from the left, they could pull out, thinking you intended to turn left.

So was there any way she could have passed at that point?

Well, believe it or not, yes!

Obviously, it's better to read the clues around you, like road signs and road markings, but everyone gets it wrong now and again.

The rules reflect this, and if you do end up in the wrong lane, you should try to do the safest thing. Many people fail their tests because they panic and try to change lane when it's not safe to do so. Often, the safest course of action is just to go the wrong way.

If Rachel had just turned left, she would have been in the correct lane for what she did, and would cause less confusion and danger to other drivers, so she'd have got a minor fault for not signalling, instead of a serious fault for not reading the paint. It would then be up to the examiner to direct her back onto whatever route she should have been on.