THE combined efforts of BSM and our pupil have reached
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a satisfactory conclusion. After 24 hours' tuition she passed her test. During the entire period of tuition the pupil experienced difficulty in only two aspects of drivingsteering and reversing. While both could have been overcome by gimmicks, both were overcome by practice.
The whole purpose of the exercise was to prove whether or not tuition by an amateur could be as successful as that of the professional teacher. I am satisfied that if the pupil had been taught by anyone other than a professional, many more hours would have been necessary.
The pupil did not have practice in addition to her lessons, she was taught in a Ford Cortina and has subsequently driven at least two other makes.
However, passing the MoT test is only part way to becoming a skilled driver-only miles of running and varying conditions can produce the added skill. Nevertheless there are some skills which one cannot merely "pick up". One is skid correction. I have seldom been happy about the prospect of skidding. How would I react? Would I be able to cope?These thoughts sent me off to Brands Hatch and the BSM skid-correction course.
There John Miles, of BSM, had newly returned from the Monte Carlo Rally having retired after hitting a mountainside. This did nothing for my confidence until I learned that at that point he was not driving.
"The best policy regarding skidding", said John, "is don't". Skidding is caused by four factors-excessive speed, braking, coarse steering or harsh acceleration. If you can avoid any of these factors you can avoid skidding. In today's conditioras this is not always possible and therefore skid-correction should be part of every driver's education.
It is inadvisable to attempt to practise this skill on anything other than a skid road or skid pan. Unfortunately there are only a few localauthority-owned pans in the country and I believe the only skid road is at Brands Hatch.
I learned that BSM put about 500 pupils through their course annually, though in relation to the number of licences issued this is infinitesimal. Of these 500, the vast majority are already skilled people who belong to motoring clubs. They are the enthusiasts who possibly require the tuition least.
• Accident damage through skidding is possibly greater than that caused by any other single factor. Few if any employers take the trouble to ensure that their light van drivers are skilled in the art of skid-correction.