Driving Lessons in Peterborough. Driving Lessons in Grantham.
I was in the back of the car and so I witnessed all of the following.
The examiner looked over his right shoulder to check what was behind us, raised his right hand and said "Stop". My pupil applied the brakes, brought the car to a stop, secured with a handbrake, and then this is the crucial bit.....
Normally, you would check the central mirror to see if anyone is approaching from behind, then do a sweeping all round check starting from over the left shoulder, down the left side of the car, sweeping the front of the car from left to right, check the right side of the car, finishing off with a blind spot check over the right shoulder. Having done all of that, if it's safe to go, crack on. But, my pupil checked his central mirror, then stopped doing anything else. Within a few seconds (literally) a car from behind overtook us, being driven fast, and then my pupil moved off after doing the rest of the obs.
The reason why I mention this, is because it doesn't happen often. Firstly, only 1 in 3 driving tests include the emergency stop (I've never witnessed one when the road surface has been wet). And secondly, because the examiners take the trouble to check behind, very rarely is there anything approaching from behind immediately after the emergency stop. But, how important that observation was in the central mirror yesterday.
Can you imagine how it would have been, had my pupil moved off WHILE the car behind was doing an overtake?! Not good, test fail material for sure. He dealt with it well and passed his driving test.
So, let me just emphasise the key ingredients:
There should be urgency to the intensity of the braking, the car should come to a stop quickly, but preferably without triggering the Anti-lock Braking System (it would not be a fail if the ABS was triggered), it's just that you stop in a shorter distance without the ABS.
Both hands should be on the steering wheel at the time of the braking, to ensure you control the position of the car in the road.
There should be no delay between the command "Stop" and the car coming to a stop - in other words there should be a quick response to the brake pedal.
Whether the car stalls or not is not important. Applying the handbrake is a good habit, because if the car is on a gradient then it will not move when you take your foot off the brake pedal.
Then the vital observations to make sure it's safe to move off - remember you are literally in the middle of the road, so you are in effect, causing a potential hazard yourself.
From "Stop" to moving off, should be no more than 15-30 seconds ordinarily.
That's a brief look at the Emergency Stop on the driving test. I hope it helps. There are techniques that I teach on my Intensive Driving Course to ensure you understand the reason behind all the above, and to develop good driving habits. Do remember that a crucial difference between the driving test emergency stop and a real life one, is that in real life, you very often have the opportunity to also steer AWAY from the hazard, so braking AND steering. But on the driving test, they only want to see you braking to a controlled stop. It is a valuable experience to experiment with braking AND steering in an emergency stop, in a safe, quiet place on your driving lessons, because the process is different depending on if your car is equipped with ABS or not - this is NOT relevant to your driving test, but very relevant to driving once you have passed your driving test.
Any comments/questions about this subject, please add them below. Wishing you well.
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