Advanced driving: IAM or RoSPA?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

londonTiger wrote: »

But that's not the point is it, it's safe driving geeks who DONT drive emeergency service vehicles who do these advanced driving courses just because it gives them a silly sense of achievement.

I remember reading on here that someone was doing an ADC and part of the test is that you have to know at any given time what the colour and make of the vehicle behind is. The instructor will test you randomly and ask what vehicle is behind and you have to answer without check your mirrors.

And how does that make you a safe driver exactly? You try driving down 4 hours of the m4 and try and keep tabs on all cars behind you at any given time.

It's just !!!!!!y, you have a peripheral vision that alerts you to danger when it's imminent. You will notice a car driving up dangerously close to you from your mirror.

This IS OCD the only way you'll have that sort of awareness when drivig is if you're checking your mirrors every 3 seconds and each time you check your mirrors that's less time you're looking at the road in front of you.

Its called situational awareness, make it your goal to know the cars behind you just by glancing at them in your rear view mirror and using wing mirrors.


Believe it or not, there are drivers out there who only use their mirrors when making a reversing maneuver and even then use 1 mirror and that being the passenger one!


I make it my business to know how far someone is behind me and what make and model it incase it collides with me, i'm not checking every 20 seconds but I check often enough.


Why?


To slow down and increase the gap if too close.


It will also dictate on how I approach an emergency situation, if someone is close enough to my rear bumper, and someone pulls out infront, I'll decide to take avoidance measures coupled with slight braking, rather than slam anchors and be rear ended, when that's what I was avoiding to do in the first place and not slamming into someone pulling out of a junction.


Its also handy to know the make and model just incase the hit you and run off.

Silver-Surfer_2

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

Its called situational awareness, make it your goal to know the cars behind you just by glancing at them in your rear view mirror and using wing mirrors.


Believe it or not, there are drivers out there who only use their mirrors when making a reversing maneuver and even then use 1 mirror and that being the passenger one!


I make it my business to know how far someone is behind me and what make and model it incase it collides with me, i'm not checking every 20 seconds but I check often enough.


Why?


To slow down and increase the gap if too close.


It will also dictate on how I approach an emergency situation, if someone is close enough to my rear bumper, and someone pulls out infront, I'll decide to take avoidance measures coupled with slight braking, rather than slam anchors and be rear ended, when that's what I was avoiding to do in the first place and not slamming into someone pulling out of a junction.


Its also handy to know the make and model just incase the hit you and run off.

Have you worded that right?

I take it you mean how you approach a hazard rather than an emergency situation?

So you won't slam on if you're going to be rear ended so will you T bone the car that's just pulled out on you?

Silver-Surfer_2

londonTiger wrote: »

it's OCD. traffic cops see road fatalities day in day out and they have a very skewed grasp of reality. So they put together RoSPA in order to make "safer" drivers.

Pretty sure a nurse in the bacterial infection ward will be a clean freak, a orthoepaedic surgeon will stretch and take all sorts of bone supplements etc.

To be honest with forces averaging between one fatal a week to one a day, you don't really see them day in day out. But feel free to give us a link you your source of information.

I bet you don't.

bigjl

londonTiger wrote: »

But that's not the point is it, it's safe driving geeks who DONT drive emeergency service vehicles who do these advanced driving courses just because it gives them a silly sense of achievement.

I remember reading on here that someone was doing an ADC and part of the test is that you have to know at any given time what the colour and make of the vehicle behind is. The instructor will test you randomly and ask what vehicle is behind and you have to answer without check your mirrors.

And how does that make you a safe driver exactly? You try driving down 4 hours of the m4 and try and keep tabs on all cars behind you at any given time.

It's just !!!!!!y, you have a peripheral vision that alerts you to danger when it's imminent. You will notice a car driving up dangerously close to you from your mirror.

This IS OCD the only way you'll have that sort of awareness when drivig is if you're checking your mirrors every 3 seconds and each time you check your mirrors that's less time you're looking at the road in front of you.

You seem to think that being an Advanced driver in the blue light services is all about speed.

It isn't your ability to access the road properly and be able to drive as fast as is safe is what it is about. You can't claim an exemption from the RTA unless you judge it safe to do so. That is what Advanced driving is about.

If you are not good enough to pass an advanced driver assessment there is no point "hating" on those that do.

If you thinking is easy then by all means sit and pass Rospa Gold and IAM and post up your certificates.

Silver-Surfer_2

bigjl wrote: »

You seem to think that being an Advanced driver in the blue light services is all about speed.

It isn't your ability to access the road properly and be able to drive as fast as is safe is what it is about. You can't claim an exemption from the RTA unless you judge it safe to do so. That is what Advanced driving is about.

If you are not good enough to pass an advanced driver assessment there is no point "hating" on those that do.

If you thinking is easy then by all means sit and pass Rospa Gold and IAM and post up your certificates.

How long was your training to advanced level? In total I had 8 weeks intensive, five days a week with progress runs throughout. There's another weeks pursuit training on top of that without even going into TPAC. Then you get some chump thinking it's all about putting your foot down.

bigjl

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

To be honest with forces averaging between one fatal a week to one a day, you don't really see them day in day out. But feel free to give us a link you your source of information.

I bet you don't.

Serious RTCs are relatively common, but even Traffic Officers don't see them day in and day out. But serious injuries are not as common as you might think, more often than not a vehicle having the roof cut off is just precautionary.

You also can't afford to get emotionally involved, especially Traffic Police as they often have tango direct from the scene to NOK.

A Traffic Officer is more likely to be doing ANPR stops day in and day out these day to be honest.

Cars are an awfully lot safer than they used to be.

Really bad RTCs (from an injury perspective) are relatively rare and more often than you might think one party involved is drunk, on drugs or driving at excessive speed (not 40 in a 30, more like 50/60 in a 30) Often hitting a completely innocent motorist.

Handily one of the advantages of having a bit more driver training is not just the ability to read the road in front of you better, but as you perform "a scan" of your mirrors every few seconds you have half a chance of seeing and avoiding the idiots and dangerous drivers on the road, maybe even those using a vehicle to deliver things without the correct Insurance.......

Everybody will benefit from doing some extra training.

The biggest risk on the road are those who "think" they are actually highly skilled but sadly aren't.

Driving is one of those weird things. Everybody assumes they are the best at it, even better than trained professionals.

A bit like me saying I am better at writing code than a computer programmer for Airbus. Which clearly I am not and never will be.

Personally I think everybody has certain things they will be able to do better than most, life is just about figuring out what these things are for you personally. Rather than hating on a particular group of people because they are better at something your perceive yourself to be one of the best at.

Silver-Surfer_2

Minrich wrote: »

Are you around Suffolk as a Driving School used to be run by Greig Ward called Drive to Survive. Don't think he still does it .
There is alot more to learn ahout driving than people really know , extra tuition from Ex Police Class 1 drivers are well worth it imho.

What were Class 2 round your way?

Silver-Surfer_2

bigjl wrote: »

Serious RTCs are relatively common, but even Traffic Officers don't see them day in and day out. But serious injuries are not as common as you might think, more often than not a vehicle having the roof cut off is just precautionary.

You also can't afford to get emotionally involved, especially Traffic Police as they often have tango direct from the scene to NOK.

A Traffic Officer is more likely to be doing ANPR stops day in and day out these day to be honest.

Cars are an awfully lot safer than they used to be.

Really bad RTCs (from an injury perspective) are relatively rare and more often than you might think one party involved is drunk, on drugs or driving at excessive speed (not 40 in a 30, more like 50/60 in a 30) Often hitting a completely innocent motorist.

Handily one of the advantages of having a bit more driver training is not just the ability to read the road in front of you better, but as you perform "a scan" of your mirrors every few seconds you have half a chance of seeing and avoiding the idiots and dangerous drivers on the road, maybe even those using a vehicle to deliver things without the correct Insurance.......

Everybody will benefit from doing some extra training.

The biggest risk on the road are those who "think" they are actually highly skilled but sadly aren't.

Driving is one of those weird things. Everybody assumes they are the best at it, even better than trained professionals.

A bit like me saying I am better at writing code than a computer programmer for Airbus. Which clearly I am not and never will be.

Personally I think everybody has certain things they will be able to do better than most, life is just about figuring out what these things are for you personally. Rather than hating on a particular group of people because they are better at something your perceive yourself to be one of the best at.

You need to be careful about what data you use for casualty statistics though. Serious injuries can be quite minor in their actual injury.
More often as not serious are looked af as life threatening or life changing. But even that can be misleading. I'm sure you've heard of the London life changing one, total to the injury was a broken finger. Mind you he was a concer pianist.

barbaraemmerson

I did the IAM many years ago - it came as a free package with the new car I bought - they made safe cars and safe drivers!! I would totally recommend it - I passed my driving test first time many many years ago but the course definitely made me a much more aware safer driver - I still use the skills I learnt then even now - a brilliant course and one I would definitely recommend and want my kids to do.

bigjl

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

How long was your training to advanced level? In total I had 8 weeks intensive, five days a week with progress runs throughout. There's another weeks pursuit training on top of that without even going into TPAC. Then you get some chump thinking it's all about putting your foot down.

We did 3 weeks usually (due to the Christmas break we lost a couple of days so we did an extra week including using the Ford Galaxys instead of minibuses and Ambulances) same as a Class 2 Police Driver though we never got to do the J Turns and stuff. Watched them join about at the other end of the airfield in decommissioned Omegas.

We did do things like driving between cones at speed, 70mph with the cones a couple of inches further apart than the vehicle was the highest I did. Also the reverse slalom was not as easy as it sounds.

We never did the skid pan, we used the car on the rack. We also moved away from Roadcraft and used the IHCD Syllabus instead. As it was more relevant. It is pretty similar but obviously here is no need to train the Police in being able to drive with two or three people standing up in the back treating a patient or getting an IV in on the way.

Our course was also a full five days with extra study required most evening and at the weekend.

Our driving was continually assessed when on our first 5 weeks on the road as part of a crew and we had regular assessment shifts with a trainer during our first year. Following by a ride out and exams at the end of one year on the road (the old Millers assessment)

People did fail their Millers on either clinical or driving, though Inonly heard of one person being sent back to Training School to do their Driving Course again.

A lot of people think that we got an extra few weeks training to go in the cars, we didn't we had a day or two with our Sector Trainer/DI.

I was proud that on retirement I had a fault free accident record, was only in a few accidents, one being driver error, the others were when people drive into the back of the Ambulance, it is only bright yellow and covered in retro reflective markings after all, easy to miss.