Experts meet in Adelaide
Under the heading "Parents key to safe driving" the Adelaide Advertiser (Nov. 5th, 02) reported on a speech during the National Road Safety Conference by Dr R.C. The psychologist from Victoria advocates that "parents ought to spend more time in the car while their teenagers learn to drive". He goes on to say that it is "especially important in the early stages of learning".
Dr. C. is obviously not a driving instructor and lives in a different world. Today's parents just don’t have the time, the nerves let alone the expertise to teach their kids. From my experience teaching manual vehicles, it takes longer to un-learn bad (inherited) habits than it would take to learn them in the first place.
Another comment I found is rather surprising and almost an insult to our industry:
"There has been a move away from formal car-based training towards an increase in the amount of on-road experience, and that’s reducing fatalities."
Can you make sense of that? How can you have on-road experience without it being car based? Does he really mean that just driving with Mum or Dad without formal driving tuition is reducing road deaths?
What wisdom from someone earning probably three times the salary I earn and who has (I assume) never given any formal driving lesson? Has this road safety expert heard about the learner driver that killed a 5-year-old child while out practicing with his dad?
The only basis on which I would I agree with Dr. C., if he advocates teaching road craft (driver behaviour) in favour of puny little sequences and rules just to pass the driving test! A parent's example is one key to safe driving. The other is a relevant, stringent driving test with an independent assessor.
A further test ought to be conducted on road safety theory. Example:
Q: "What do you have to consider before entering a railway crossing?
A: "Is the exit clear?" *
The same newspaper article quotes our Motoring Organization as saying, on the one hand, "more road safety education in schools would be beneficial". In the next sentence it says, they (the Motorist's Organization) "would stay right away from driver-training programs in schools". Again it appears to be a contradictory statement. The organization, which was pivotal in introducing the log-book system into South Australia, continues by saying, it was "satisfied that the system was sound".
From first hand experience I know, that this system, which will have been in place for ten years in April 2003, has not brought the results expected. On the contrary, it has landed South Australia at the bottom of the road safety ladder.
I wonder how much this conference has cost the taxpayer? (I could probably supply each high school student in Australia with a copy of my book for that amount of money). What positive, tangible outcomes will there be for road safety in Australia?
When is the road safety bride going to marry the driving-school groom?
* I wrote this article following another, which dealt with the death of 4 people at a railway crossing 5 kilometers from my residence on Oct. 24th, 2002. A driver of a small hatchback plus a bus driver did not consider if the exit was clear. Stopping on the track both vehicles were demolished by a fast moving passenger train.