#28: Driver Improvement
(I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while, and just never got around to finishing it)
Recently, I attended a driver improvement course in Hatfield. The reason for this was that I had a car accident back at the end of last December where I hit a car from behind on an icy morning after being distracted by a group of cars making illegal U-turns in the middle of a busy single carriageway.
As you might be able to tell, I have an attitude of severe cynicism towards the whole thing. It was apparently no accident that I hit this car, it was a “collision” - there is no such thing as an accident any more, according to the police, because there is always blame involved. It is fairly safe to say that I do not like the police, and especially not their attitude to this whole affair.
Anyway, about a month after the accident, when I had my new car, the police wrote to me to say that they were contemplating taking further action as a result of the accident. This pissed me off - they had already charged me £105 for the “privilege” of having my car towed when it didn’t need to be, and now the bastards were actually giving consideration to taking legal action against me for a simple accident that happened on an icy morning - no thought given to the mitigating circumstances I detailed in my statement or anything.
I forgot about the letter until a few weeks afterwards when I received a letter saying that they were “offering me a driver improvement course as an alternative to prosecution”. Essentially, they were saying “pay for a £160 course or we might take you to court - what you gonna do?”
At first, I thought the whole thing was a big con. I was tempted just not to pay and basically say “bring it on - what sort of case have you got against me?”. As time wore on though, I ended up with a whole load of reasons to actually pay the money and go on the course. If they did take me to court and I lost, I’d not only be saddled with far more than £160 in expenses, but I might also end up with 6 points on my licence. That really isn’t good news at 22.
After much deliberating, I decided to pay the money and go on the course. I deliberately left arranging it and paying for it right until the last minute, because I wanted time to save up the money, and I paid by cheque just to give me the maximum possible interest I could get on the money before handing it over.
The course lasted one and a half days - a Friday, and a Saturday morning. This wasn’t too bad considering that I only live 15-20 minutes drive from the place it was held (a hotel in Hatfield) and I actually found the whole course to be quite interesting. There were some humourous parts to keep you interested in what they were saying, but there was a lot of real content as well that was good to learn, and did change your overall attitude to accidents and driving. I’d been very cynical before I went, and I left with a changed mentality towards the whole situation.
The best part of the course was actually going out on the road with a Gold-standard advanced driver. He knew exactly what he was doing on the road and really made an effort to point out things that I did wrong. He said my driving was very good on the whole and only picked out that I got too close to people in traffic - “tyres on tarmac” was the key point to bear in mind. Obviously, you drive a bit differently when it’s a strange car (this was a diesel, and I don’t have much experience driving them) and when you’re almost being examined but I was fairly relaxed, and the instructor (Roy) was a top bloke who had a great sense of humour and a brilliant method of teaching.
Overall, I think the course was worth my time and the money. It certainly beats getting prosecuted, and I think it’s taught me some things which I will bear in mind in the future. I’m thinking about doing advanced driver training now, but I’m not sure whether I really want someone being that critical about my driving or not!