I am extremely saddened to learn of the sudden death of Paul Smith, tireless campaigner for sensible road safety policies.  Although his style was most definitely not the gentle, diplomatic approach, he certainly ruffled a few feathers and refused to get off the DfT’s back until he saw evidence of a change in policy away from the crude sticking plaster effect of speed cameras, which he believed have done untold damage to our road safety record, towards the sensible policies of proper traffic policing.  However you felt about Paul, we have lost a true ally in the fight for safer roads in this country, and he will be sadly missed.  I should personally like to extend my heartfelt condolences to his partner Claire, his friends and his family.  RIP Paul.

Jackie

One in five new drivers is involved in a crash in his or her first year of driving.

13 per cent of licence holders are 25 or under, but more than 29 per cent of drivers killed are in this age group.

Male drivers aged 17 to 19 are almost ten times more likely to be killed or seriously injured behind the wheel than those aged 40 to 59.

In 2004, 187 male drivers aged 17 were killed compared with 36 females.

Sources: Driving Standards Agency; DfT; Brake; the Times

With statistics like this it is easy to rush and try to deal with the symptom when we should be dealing with the root cause.  Why is it that this age group is crashing, and killing themselves (and others) more than the rest of the driving population?  Will restrictions solve the problem?  The New Drivers Act, requiring those within the first 2 years after passing their driving test to retake the whole test, including the theory test, if they acquire 6 points on their licence, has managed to ‘lose’ more than half of those drivers who have fallen foul of this act.  Where are they?  Surely they haven’t all given up driving?  The awful explanation would seem to be that a high percentage of them are driving around illegally!  We must beware, therefore, of any knee-jerk reactions to these statistics which could have a similar result. (read the full article on this report at http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article1728930.ece)

At Caremotoring we believe passionately that learner drivers must be educated to become skilled thinking drivers before they pass their driving test.  It is for this reason that we are currently developing our e-learning course, and it is also the reason why we want to encourage all learner drivers to have as much private practice as possible.  With the help of Lancashire County Council’s excellent ‘Perfect Partner’ resource, we will help anyone who is willing, and legally entitled, to provide these extra practice sessions for the learner.  And, by filling in a few short questionnaires, you will also be helping valuable research into young driver safety. 

If insurance for the learner is your concern, if you cannot, or would rather not, include them on your insurance, then please visit http://www.clickthepepper.com for details of an innovative new insurance product for learner drivers.

To learn more about developing young driver thinking skills, download Stephen Haley’s document: The Essential Thinking Skills

Having just received my copy of ‘Despatch’, the DSA magazine for road safety professionals, where they have printed an update on photocard driving licences, I felt it was important to alert you to the information given there, and so the following information is copied from that article:

Did you know  that all photocard driving licences need to be updated every 10 years?  The photograph on the licence is only valid for 10 years and hence the driving licence needs to be updated accordingly.  This does not mean that drivers need to re-take their driving test.

In order to raise awarenesss, the DVLA will prompt drivers with a reminder that their photo is due to expire.  When a photo on a photocard licence expires, the licence holder must apply to the DVLA and request that their licence is renewed.  The first photographs will expire in July 2008; hence the DVLA will start to issue reminders in May 2008 onwards.

The licence holder must update their licence before their current photo expires.  Failure to do so may result in a fine of up to £1000.

If you have read through the pages of this site, you will have become aware of our endorsement for Stephen Haley’s book, ‘Mind Driving’.  Click this link to read an article by Stephen on the topic of Sense of Danger: http://www.skilldriver.org/index.asp?page=0.2.3.0.SenseOfDangerArticle

Do take a look around the rest of the skilldriver.org web site: the section on ‘What people say’ makes very interesting reading, and you can also view a list of the contents of ‘Mind Driving’.  Please do visit our shop, where you can purchase your copy of this truly ground-breaking book.  Possibly the best book purchase you’ll ever make!

This is the 7th, and final, in our series of tips from Stephen Haley, author of ‘Mind Driving - New Skills for Staying Alive on the Road’.

Space and road position should be managed to control risk.  Spacing-off a danger will reduce it - and this is exactly what space is for.

This technique requires that dangers are identified, and it is therefore more active than maintaining a general ‘buffer’ of space around the vehicle.  When passing between two threats, for example, the chosen line should be balanced on the assessed risks, eg children on the path versus traffic on the other side of the road.

Care Motoring:

In addition, speed and space should always be kept in balance - when space is reduced, as when passing between two threats, speed should be lowered in order to reduce the risk.  The balance here is ’space-position-speed’.