Car manufacturers show a great deal of restraint when it comes to in-car entertainment. They are desperate to protect the driver from having too many distractions. Streaming from multiple devices direct to the dashboard could be a killer. Some of the sat nav and live train/plane/weather data is distracting enough. But imagine for a moment how distracting it would be if you could stream visuals on to the dash screens. YouTube videos, Houseparty, Zoom meetings, Facebook videos and all the others would create mayhem for safe driving. Cute doggy live stories on Snapchat or Mrs Hinch on Insta - these distractions that only need last for a second or two, could be fatal. As we come out of lockdown and the vast working population have now experienced the advantages of Zoom, it makes you realise how necessary it is to shield drivers. Millions of us have now become much more tech-savvy than we perhaps were pre-lockdown.
Isolation, shielding and safe distancing are terms that we have come to readily accept in day to day conversations. Perhaps now is the time for us driving instructors to tap into this terminology and use it for creating safe driving environments. I've mentioned it before on this blog; it may not have escaped your notice that drivers of vehicles now give cyclists a lot more space when they overtake. Now might be the time to take full advantage of these changing behaviours brought on by the added focus to 'safety' that the Coronavirus has created.
I've heard Jim Davidson (comedian) mention several times on his YouTube channel his advice of assuming everyone you meet has the virus and also that you have the virus - just have that as the starting point in your mind. Then, he adds, go about your daily business doing everything you can to not spread it to others, and not catch it yourself. I quite like that approach because it instantly affects behaviours by creating a clear mindset.
Our pupils should be encouraged to think the same about drivers, including them. Imagine that no-one should distract the driver and the driver should do everything not to get distracted. An anti-social media protective shield around the driver if you like. You know how many have talked about a plastic barrier between pupil and driving instructor to prevent infection, well, consider it like that to prevent exposure to in-car entertainment. If passengers know that they are going to use devices on a given journey, why not ask them to sit in the back? Think of it like social distancing perhaps?
As the volume of vehicles on our roads continues to increase post-lockdown, we can now start to engage our pupils in conversations about risk assessment that will now be more meaningful. People will now have a better appreciation of risk, probability, chance, exposure, threat and potential hazards because of the last few months dealing with a pandemic. As instructors, we would do well to raise awareness in our pupils of the potential threat to the road safety of technology in vehicles. We can mention social distancing in the car, a protective barrier around the driver, a sterile area around the cockpit. This comes under the following section in our Standard: Role 1: Prepare yourself, the vehicle, and its passengers for a journey. In particular, it can be found in - "Element 1.1.3: Control the risks linked with carrying passengers, loads and animals". For those who like memory joggers, we could do with an acronym just like we have "FLOWER" for the safety checks that we encourage our pupils to do. Any volunteers?
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