Had a strange day yesterday.
Started off by taking an early learner (6 hrs in), to the wrong location to
practise. We had set the objective to
try out some more emerge/turns in an area he has not been to yet, and I had
added the subject of ‘meeting situations’ which was bound to come his way in
the process of getting there.
Having set the area as Yaxley I had made the observation
that some of it is real tight down there, good experience. So as we get there, before we really got
stuck into the emerges/turns, we came across a parked car on the right, and an
oncoming 4x4, was not holding back.... he just kept coming – which spooked my
learner, and in his desperate reactions he mounted the kerb.
You could argue that the 4x4 was at fault and so dismiss the
mishap, putting it down to someone else.
But as I explained to my learner, the ‘fault’ was entirely mine. It was a great example of choosing a location
of convenience rather than the best location for the objectives. My learner had driven back to his home for
the first time in the previous session, so I was conscious that he would be
driving away from his home for the first time yesterday, so I didn’t want him
to be driving anywhere too challenging to begin with. And sure enough, getting to Yaxley was NOT
too challenging, in that respect my plan had worked, but Yaxley was definitely
not the right place for the objectives set.
It resulted in me driving us somewhere far more appropriate
and he had a dream of a session. The situation
was recovered. Thankfully I had not lost
that all important trust and respect element required in the relationship
between instructor and learner. It was a
good reminder for me, especially with a check test coming up soon, that
planning is absolutely key. In the
spirit of ‘client centred learning’ that the DSA are embracing, this setting of
what to do, when and where needs to be 2 way but we can’t simply lay all the
onus on the learner to set these objectives – as can be seen, it could have
quite disastrous consequences.
My last session was 7 – 8.30pm and I had one of those
moments where I could not remember for the life of me ‘dedicated lanes’. We were doing approaching r/b’s, where the
intended exit was 2nd on the left, but lane 1 on the approach, was ‘dedicated’
for the exit of 1st left only.
You know when you have a word on the tip of your tongue but I could not
get it out? I did some frantic flicking
through pages of my Highway Code, and Know Your Traffic Signs books, but I
could not find it. Looking back now, I
realise it was just a silly moment, but at the time, I was all consumed with
trying to remember the word!
I got back home and checked out my driving Facebook page (BIG
TOM Driving School), about 9pm. I found
that a chap 4 minutes earlier, had put up a comment on my ‘hazard perception’
video clip. Briefly to explain, I had
filmed a stretch of road about a month or so ago, and asked the viewer to
consider all the potential hazards that they could see. I uploaded it to my YouTube channel
(2010BIGTOM), and although there had been 30 odd viewings since, no-one had
actually put any comments on the vid clip at all. So I put a list of the potential hazards that
I saw, and plonked it up on my Facebook page for my learners to take another
look. This chap last night who is
unknown to me personally, wrote something along the lines of:
“If you are going to put up a video of hazard awareness, at
least choose somewhere that has some hazards.
What is your point?”
My reply to his comment is still on the Facebook page, and I
can only assume had the effect of raising his awareness on the subject of
hazards, because within 2 minutes of me replying to him, he deleted his
original comment. Which actually is a
shame, because however technically naive his original comment was, you cannot
deny, judging by the tone of it, that it was genuinely believed.
I can only assume he is a learner, as he is viewing one of
my driving vids, on my driving page. So
it just goes to show you how someone can view a road ahead, and have zero
perception of hazards – even when you draw their attention to it – when actually,
the road is riddled with potential hazards.
A sobering thought.
(Just as a little ‘by the by’, if you get a chance, take a
look at the vid and freeze frame it at precisely 2m 23secs That large black mark in the road that you
can see, is a massive skid mark that as you can see swerves violently to the
left. I was able to see that whatever
had caused that skid, had swerved completely off the road and straight into that ditch
on the left. There were no flowers
there, so I hope no-one died in that incident, but I wonder if the chap who put
up his comment last night would have spotted that?)
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