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LETTERS Dear Driving Magazine


Dear Sir Following your recent February/March issue of Driving, I have to disagree with your views on flashing to warning oncoming vehicles of a police speed trap up ahead. Firstly, the only people who should be concerned about


a speed trap are those who speed. The person flashing is facilitating in their blatant breaking of the law. I have seen on numerous occasions this very act, people hitting speeds of almost 40 in a 30 zone, who have been warned and subsequently slowed down only to speed up again once past the trap. The particular road I refer to has a school on it approximately 500 yards after the trap. The flash allows the driver to hold on to his/her licence but


then immediately after endanger the lives of significant numbers of innocent children. I fail to see an argument for flashing. Consider also that you flash to warn a speeding driver of a


speed trap. You have done a good deed for the day. Your day continues only to be contacted by the police to advise you of a fatal accident involving a child and a speeding vehicle, that very vehicle that you warned. How would that make you feel? Speed cameras play a vital role in ensuring the safety of


society as a whole, from those other road users to pedestrians. I fail to see how people can see them as purely a source of income. If people obey the laws, then they surely have nothing to worry about.


David Shields


Dear Sir Just read my February/March copy of Driving. I particularly enjoyed Steve Garrod’s interesting article about the disqualified driver (Pointless Driving). I had a similar experience back in 1993, an unusual one and one that may be of interest. I got the call from this chap in Budleigh Salterton


(East Devon). He said he was retired, had just bought a new car and wanted a refresher course. No problems, I thought, as I’d done many of these before. I met the chap, who insisted he used his own car, a new Rover, for the lessons. I did all the necessary checks of licence and insurance and all seemed OK. He didn’t want to drive away as he said he was nervous, so I took him to a quiet area and he was indeed very nervous, even panicky. He eventually had 21 hours and at the end was reasonably good. He also said he would come back again for more after a month, which he did, for motorway driving. I thought that there was something not quite


right about this: he was happy to do the hours suggested, money wasn’t a problem and even though he felt like a learner driver again, he worked hard to overcome his fears. Still, it bugged me. I contacted some friends to check him out and what I got back was interesting. He had just come out of prison, having served


Dear Sir I read with interest your article entitled Pointless Training in the February/March edition of Driving magazine. I am currently campaigning for the introduction of mandatory refresher training for all UK licence holders and I think that your article, while not suggesting this approach directly, does tend to subtly support the idea. You talk mainly about those who have been convicted of motoring offences undertaking such training, but I was really interested when, towards the end of your article, you talk about drivers who have had near-misses and who fail to acknowledge them. If left unchecked, these drivers are likely to go on to have or cause a crash and possibly serious injury or death. The DSA and DoT are going after the novice driver: given their


high number of crashes and incidents in the first couple of years of unsupervised driving, this is understandable. However, I don’t think the problem is their fault. They lack experience, but look at the standards they are set day in and day out, both by parents and peers and the general motoring public. Children learn from what they observe and they observe poor driving standards from a very early age. No wonder instructors struggle in 40 or so hours to undo this conditioning. We can get them through test, but once passed, sadly, many of our new drivers revert to what the know and see so often while driving on their own. So, I firmly believe that it is the standards of the general motoring


public that we need to work on – both technique and attitude – and I believe that it has to be mandatory, otherwise the majority just won’t be bothered. I am currently campaigning on Facebook, (UK Drivers Need Regular Refresher Training), in the hope that I can get enough interested people to sign an online petition. If any Driving readers who are on Facebook would like to join the group, and the campaign, we can start to spread the word.


Martin Bryant


five years of an eight-year sentence for serious fraud. He opened up to me on the motorway lesson when we had a break at the service station. He said he never really enjoyed driving but he had been inside for five years, so he had not sat in a moving object for that time. He went on to say that, as a model prisoner, he was offered courses in computer studies (he was already competent), carpentry and even building. He requested a driving course and was laughed at! How many people come out of incarceration and


get straight into a vehicle having not driven, not been a passenger and not even kept up to date with road sense as a pedestrian? He was a lovely chap and stated how much the


roads and traffic had changed as well as vehicles. He bought the car new, in cash, and then was terrified to drive it away. This was nearly 20 years ago and I would


guess there are still many leaving prison who are perhaps in need of a refresher course – although successive governments wouldn’t think so. Jamie Waddell


Please send your letters to letters@driving.org


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Please include your name and address. Letters may be shortened for publication.


driving | April / May 2011


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