DEFENSIVE DRIVING VIDEO MEDIA
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need to do is look clearly ahead, and act quickly. We encourage people to do things early." Indeed, the defensive driving programme can be summarised quite easily, Nash insists. "Defensive driving is really about reading the road ahead. . that's what we've incorporated into it. We came up with the message `Observe; Defensive driving package is used by Shell UK's training Prepare; and Respond'."
Applying these three key watchwords helps people develop a defensive driving mentality, Nash asserts. "How well you 'OPR' to hazards by putting yourself through the programme may reduce the potential for accidents in real life."
First-time users of the defensive driving video are not, however, expected to jump straight into what is a fairly stressful situation. Instead, they are prepared gently for a test drive through a series of preliminary exercises.
As the potential users of the VM video are HGV drivers who may have little experience of operating a computer keyboard, the first phase of the programme is designed to make them comfortable with the equipment. "We've assumed the drivers are keyboard illiterate," says Nash, "so we put in a clear guide that always shows you how to proceed."
Certainly the instructions on the screen are easy to follow and involve little more than pushing the space bar (to stop the action), or pressing a cursor button, to select an action option.
In order to put trainees in the right frame of mind, the first exercise is a static vehicle safety check. In reality, it's a driver's eye view walking round looking for hazards on a Seddon Atkinson Shell tanker_ There are four to spot: a dirty windscreen, a flat tyre on the trailer, a cracked taillight and not fitting a seat belt (a Shell requirement). As the driver circles the vehicle the viewer must stop the action as soon as each fault is spotted by depressing the space bar. The necessary list of action options appears and the right one must be chosen.
While in real life a driver could take his time examining a vehicle, on the video the hazards must be spotted fairly quickly (we missed the less-than-obvious dirty windscreen). "The vehicle safety check is designed to make people think and to get them used to interacting with the keyboard: the main aim is to get comfortable with it," Nash explains.
Once you've checked out the vehicle you're ready to move on to the practice drive. Within this section there are no less than 13 potential accidents stored up waiting for you to avoid. At the end of each individual exercise the operator is shown his defensive driving rating. In order to reinforce the point each scenario is backed up by a "fact file", which explains why each situation is particularly dangerous, allowing the viewer to revise his or her opinion as to the level of danger, if there has been a poor score. The video hazards, stored on laser disc, were chosen by VM, working together with The Royal Society of Prevention of Accidents, TRRL and the Institute of Advanced Motorists, as representing the most common types of road accidents found on British roads. The filming of each "accident" itself was done with the help of the police and each is remarkably realistic.
Scores vary from a maximum defensive driving rating of 20 points (made up of 10 for taking a decision in the "in time" period, as well as 10 for choosing the best action option), through to 15, for inattention, and finally to 10 or less, for dangerous driving.
The average HGV driver will soon get the hang of the system. "Most users do four or five from the practice before they go on to the test section," says Na.sh.
This contains seven accident situations, run one after the other, without an intermediate report, but with a full analysis at the end. With seven hazards to negotiate there is a total of 140 points to be won: 130 and above gets you the coveted defensive driving rating, 105 to 130 reflects inattention; while less than 105 earns you a dangerous driving rating.
Readers will be asking, "What did Commercial Motor get?" The answer, thankfully, is a straight 140 defensive driving rating. So what does that prove? Probably nothing beyond the fact that a number of truck manufacturers should be reassured that their test vehicles will be looked after — and that the average HGV or PSV driver should have a defensive driving mentality as second nature.
Unfortunately that is not always the case, according to Nash. "You'd be surprised how many people don't get a defensive driving rating. I've been with professional drivers who haven't, although admittedly some were with their managers and were a bit nervous." In many ways Nash's last remark underlines the rather artificial nature of the system — not least from the point of view that anyone using the video is already expecting .trouble and primed. to act quickly: an admirable state of mind, but seldom applied on the road 100% of the time.
From our own experience on the video we also tended to hit the space bar, stopping the action, almost out of a gut feeling that something nasty was about to happen, rather than simply because of all the clues on the screen. But perhaps that is what defensive driving is all about — the ability to sense danger approaching.
school. It was interesting to note
that on two occasions when we pressed the space bar, we were told that our speed and position were acceptable, though we didn't reckon they were.
This prompts the question, what's to stop the operator hitting the space bar every two seconds in order to get a perfect score? In practice it doesn't happen, says Nash. "That can be a problem, but people tend not to do it as they quite like to see it through".
Isn't there also a danger of becoming too familiar with the hazards and eventually suffering from game fatigue? With 20 situations to experience, however, no one is likely to play each and every one, says Nash, it would take too long. What's more, the computer within the system ensures that the sequence of the hazards varies each time — they appear totally at random. One hazard may appear in a practice run for one user, then in the test run for another. And as each hazard has its own reaction time it is impossible to apply the same timing to each.
So who is going to benefit from such a sophisticated system, especially given the fact that the complete package with hardware and programme costs about 24,000?
The obvious answer is large transport companies, like Shell, with a sufficient number of drivers to justify the expense. Alternatively it would be a useful addition to the training armoury of any HGV driving school — Shell UK has the system operating at its Haydock Driver Training School, and will be monitoring its effect on the accident rate in the UK during the coming months.
Nash has no doubts that the VM programme (claimed to be the only interactive truck driving programme there is) "Has much to offer. We're not trying to teach people to drive. The system is more of an attitudinal type of driving so people can see cause and effect," says Video Media. "We're trying to teach people to think about safety. Many drivers wait until the last moment and given the times they have a near miss they think they'll always get away with it — but they won't."
Regardless of who buys the system it remains an excellent tool for teaching all drivers to adopt a defensive driving style. The rewards are incalculable: "If we save one life, or make someone a safer driver, it's got to be worth it," says Nash. ID by Brian Weatherley