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While it is a great achievement to pass your Driving Test first time it is only the beginning of a life long process and does not confer immortality rights! So many young drivers are blissfully unaware of what is facing them in the first few years of Driving after passing the Driving Test.

This time is generally recognised as the most dangerous in a driver’s career since the euphoria of passing the Driving Test, whether first time or not, seems to completely blur the reality of driving in today’s environment. Today’s Driving Environment is very different to that of twenty five years ago or in Ireland’s case just ten years ago when roads were quieter and there were fewer untrained Learner Drivers on the road.

Today in 2006 not only do we have a huge increase in the number of vehicles on the road but an exponential increase of Learner Drivers who in the case of Ireland are cavorting merrily (and not so merrily!) around the countryside with little or no skills to back them up. A booming economy with plenty of jobs for everyone has placed cars within the reach of every 20 year old and some even younger drivers. Not for long, however, will this free for all continue, since the newly established Road Safety Authority has come out of the Kennel in the back yard and is beginning to bark. Bark it must do because the more noise that is made, the sooner the whole Motoring public will sit up and take notice.

What has the general motoring public got to do with Learner Drivers and their very obvious poor skills base you might ask? Since each generation of new drivers gets the first exposure to Driving and Road Sense in a Parent’s car, at a very early age, then it seems obvious that Parents can play a very key role in instilling good road safety skills.

Most Drivers are Parents or will be at some stage and so there is a strong link between the Driving Skills of Parents and those of their children. Setting a strong example from the first day a child is strapped into the car seat is an essential part of the long slow educational process. This will ensure that ultimately a new Driver goes out into the world with some good skills and an understanding of what is involved in owning and running a car.

In a nutshell Driver Education begins when we are in nappies and continues throughout life. The ability to pass the Driving Test first time is definitely influenced by the early years in your Parent’s car and the example they set for you. Bad driving habits and behaviour are easily noticed by young passengers and since the kids of today seldom go more than a few hours without being transported several times at least, they are constantly exposed to driver behaviour be it good or bad!

It may seem a bit of a chore to start training a child at such a young age but you can do it in stages and integrate the lessons to be learnt on a gradual basis. Keeping the car tidy is a good start and is no different to instilling a sense of pride in your nice tidy bedroom. As we all know keeping bedrooms tidy is tiresome but well worth it in the end.
Passing the Driving Test First time can begin with your first time in the car but saving your life and that of another Driver can also begin at this time! Strange but True! Could it be worth the effort?

Copyright Robin Piggott 2006

Robin Piggott is a Driving Instructor in Ireland who brings four decades of experience to his Astral Driving School based in Limerick. His newly refurbed web site can be found at www.astraldrivingschool.ie Here you can find a treasure trove of everything for the Learner Driver and also pages for the visitor who is contemplating Touring Ireland by Car. Pick up a free seven part mini course”Passing the Driving Test First Time” and stack the cards in your favour.

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There is currently worldwide scrutiny of Driver Training activities and regulations as respective Governments and Transport Ministries finally realise that learner Drivers are not magically going to transform themselves into competent, safe and conscientious drivers! Parents can play a major role in preventing serious and fatal accidents long before the Rule of Law takes over.

Learning how to behave in a car as a child is the very first step in Driver Education and unless a Parent sets the rules of engagement and boundaries that cannot be breached they will inadvertently be encouraging disruptive behaviour long before the first learners permit or Provisional License. Any disruptive behaviour in a car should be met with the pausing of the journey to read the riot act!

Many accidents are caused by too much high spirits and by too many passengers in a car driven by a Learner Driver, particularly at night. Even an experienced Driver will not be able to concentrate fully on the job at hand if there is a commotion going on in the car.

Virtually every State in the America is evaluating its’ licensing laws and regulations at the moment as more and more young drivers take to the road and then obliterate themselves and their passengers, often at night after celebrations.

In Australia and New Zealand tougher measures are being rolled out to control reckless and Drink Driving which clearly is a global problem! In Ireland it is estimated that alcohol plays a part in one third of all fatal accidents!

The European Union is bringing in continual changes to Driver Education regulations and the format of Driving Tests. In fact in Europe currently, mandatory Tuition before sitting a Driving Test is the norm as is the Regulation, Monitoring and Testing of Driving Instructors and Schools.

The recent announcement of the Regulation of Driving Instructors in Ireland is to be welcomed but it is long overdue and is only now being recognised as an integral part of the solution to the ever increasing level of accidents and road fatalities!

The cost of accidents to the Irish Exchequer is reckoned to be around

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The Driving Test is surrounded by Myth and Mystery and not a little confusion! It needn’t be this way if the candidate ignores all the horror stories from friends, workmates and relatives and approaches the task with a clear plan of action and a determined mind.
Enter the Planning Department Chief stage left (or stage right if you are in one of those strange countries where Drivers drive on the wrong side of the road! only kidding!) This individual is usually known by the pseudonym Instructor.

There is a lot of work to be done in the planning of your assaultfor that’s what it is a military campaign not a high school picnic and with you in the Driving Seat! No hand holding allowed! And you are the Commander in Chief and the Examiner or Tester takes a back seat during the battle. Look on him or her as your assistant not the Dictator. See where we are heading here? Does it sound like you are about to become a control freak? Yes Absolutely! There is only one person in the car who matters and that is the person in the Driving SeatGuess where this phrase emanated?

Does the Examiner steer the car or change gear or accelerate smoothly away from the Traffic Lights or give way to a poor unfortunate who is trying in vain to ease out into traffic that just won’t take any notice? No of course not it’s You and You alone, so why get into a twist? You are the Driver and probably the Owner of the car as wellyou are in the driving seat so why be shaking in your shoes when all this person beside you is doing is taking a few notes and checking your progress? Your participation in the exercise is by far the more important.

What we are saying here is plain and simple get a grip and take control and with your plan of action already well worked out in advance with your Instructor (where did he spring from?) and plenty of practise and that is Plenty with a capital P, success in the battle is assured. When does the planning meeting take place? Well not one week from your Driving Test that’s for sure! Four weeks is cool; Six weeks even better; after all, you do have to work, eat and sleep unlike the Giant Panda that Eats, Shoots and Leaves! Did you know that there is an uncanny similarity between a Giant Panda and a successful Driving Test Candidate? No? Well there is believe me! The Giant Panda actually eats for 16 hours a day and the Driving Test candidate who wants to be successfulwell you do don’t you? needs to be pursuing a similar path of determination with their Driving Lessons and their Homework! OUCH! No one ever said anything about homework

Passing the Driving Test first time is a result of hard work, persistence and planning otherwise known as hwpp not http which is some kind of Internet thingy! You can improve your chances by a zillion per cent by trying to attract the attention of said Chief Planner who, as you might expect, is expert at Planning! You don’t get to be a Chief Planner overnight promotion comes, sometimes rather slowly after a lifetime in the ranks and a million motor Miles or Kilometres if you are one of the unfortunates who drive on the wrong sorry just getting my spoke in (again!)

Surely the Planning Office Junior (or even Mom or Popouch don’t go there they wouldn’t pass today’s test even in a Supermarket car park!)) would be somewhat less expensive to hire as a mentor than the Department Chief? Well yes you have a point there, but since he or she hasn’t clocked up much in the way of Celtic Tiger Miles already, this is not a good choice. Go for the expert, pay your fees gladly (but probably painfully) and know that you will be getting the best training, the best advice and equally importantly the latest up to the minute insider tips, techniques hotspot highlights!

Today’s Driving Instructor who takes the job seriously is out and about every day looking for clues like Colombo used to, but with a nose for forensics like CSI in 2006, that can be pieced together and moulded into a comprehensive solution that will ensure success for the Driving Test candidate. In other words he or she is the short circuit route to the success that you are looking for that you cannot possibly attain on your own. Just like Colombo or the crew at CSI they didn’t get to the top of the tree status by watching T.V or flicking through the Sunday papers, enjoyable though, that can be at times. They gained their expertise and nose for a problem and its solution by hard graft behind the steering wheel night and day; day and night; in all weathers and in all conditions and naturally in a large variety of vehicles.

Any Learner Driver who is serious about passing the Driving Test just doesn’t go out and buy a car and hope for the best. It won’t work and it never has! Utilising the skills of an Instructor is the way to succeed on your Driving Test and to set the foundation for a lifelong career of safe driving behind the wheel.

Robin Piggott is a Driving Instructor in Ireland who brings four decades of experience to his Astral Driving School based in Limerick. His newly refurbed web site can be found at http://www.astraldrivingschool.ie Here you can find a treasure trove of everything for the Learner Driver and also pages for the visitor who is contemplating Touring Ireland by Car.

For a free seven part e mail mini course on “Passing the Driving Test First Time” stack the cards in your favour and visit http://www.astraldrivingschool.ie/home

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