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TAKE A HORSE TO WATER

9th February 1995
Page 9
Page 9, 9th February 1995 — TAKE A HORSE TO WATER
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Somewhere near the end of every B-movie horror flick you'd hear the immortal words: "There are some things man is not meant to know." In the movies this doom-laden warning generally hod something to do with Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff; we're tempted to apply it to Transport Secretary Brian Mcrwhinney's approach to driver training. Last Saturday the papers were full of his plan to improve the skills of young drivers, who are involved in 20% of all road accidents. Under the Pass Plus scheme, newly qualified drivers would be encouraged to take further training after passing their test, drawn by the prospect of cheaper insurance. Credit where it's due, this strikes us as a sound idea. What we fail to understand is why such schemes are being offered to 17-year-olds driving 100hp hot hatches, while they're denied to 21-year-olds who could end up in charge of 400hp 38-tonners. Before the DOT springs to its own defence, we'll point out on its behalf that provisional HGV drivers already have plenty of experience on the road. But as we've said so often before, that experience is unlikely to include being behind the wheel of a fully freighted truck— even the HGV test is taken in an empty vehicle. Is that the right preparation for the real world? When it comes to extra training for young car drivers, the DOT may find that leading the horse to water is far easier than making it drink. Recent research conducted at Southampton University suggested that the problem with drivers under 21 is not that they don't have the skills; it's iust that they don't choose to use them. So the DOT backs extra training for people who probably don't want it, while ignoring calls for HGV training to be made more relevant at a time when the recipients of such training would be likely to grasp it with both hands. When CM wrote to the Driving Standards Agency in January, as part of our campaign to have HGV training schools registered, we reminded it that in our surveys of training schools most of them supported the concept of laden training. All we got back was the tired old arguments about insurance and load security, with a eulogy in favour of a "voluntary" scheme for raising driver training standards. We look forward to seeing the uptake figure for the Pass Plus scheme. If it's as low as some expect we'll be happy to tell the DOT where to stick its training efforts—on HGVs.


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