Hi there, Here's one for your opinions.
My female pupil while driving my Mini Cooper tuition car exits large multilane roundabout in left lane and accelerates briskly in 3rd to 50mph and changes to 5th and maintains acceleration up to 70mph.
Shortly after we start to accelerate the driver and passenger of a following blue 5 door mid size hatch back moves out to right lane of the 2 lane dual carrigeway and tries to pass but either their car is not as powerful or he is not as confident in his/her ability to pass.
Meantime I ask the pupil about the lorry in the distance and how will she deal with it with the offending car still trying to pass us while we are maintaining 70 mph and who now has to speed to pass. She said she will check her mirrors and slow down which is what she did.
I then received the following emails and my replys :-
1st email
From: JXXX MXXXXXXX [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 13 December 2007 15:31
To: [email protected]
Subject: Dangerous Driving.
We have just had the misfortune to be driving on the same stretch of road as one of your learner cars. We were joining the dual carriageway from Glenrothes to Kirkcaldy. We safely overtook the learner car, however what happened next defies belief. The learner driver put her foot down and attempted to stop us from overtaking. [This happened at the very beginning of the dual carriageway]. This was not only stupid, but could have been extremely dangerous. When I say she sped up, this is in fact an understatement. She really put her foot down to stop us from executing a perfectly legal manouvre. We had no alternative but to speed up to overtake her, thus putting ourselves in danger. I cannot believe how idiotic the whole incident was. We seriously considered calling the police when we arrived home. The instructor must need his head read. This all happened at around 3 pm. Not exactly a great advertisment for your company.
Mrs R MXXXXXX
Response
Dear Mrs MXXXXXX.
Please feel free to forward your number to me and I will happily call and discuss the alleged incident with you. Alternatively my number is 077XXXXXXXX.
On the one hand I can see how the situation could have been misunderstood and you might feel the way you do.
However, At no point was the manoeuvre dangerous and neither did the pupil attempt to stop you from overtaking. She stayed in the lane and used the acceleration of the car to make progress. I can assure you I saw you and watched to see where you were at all times.
You drive a blue car I believe?
You clearly realised that the car was an instruction vehicle and spotted the ‘L’ plate on the roof. Normally this is an indication that the driver is likely to be less experienced and possibly make mistakes and therefore it’s not unreasonable to be generous in your attitude and approach to the vehicle and give the learner additional time and space.
Firstly you had not actually past us when she accelerated, Granted you were in the outside lane and also accelerating but there’s no danger there. If you had been past us or level then I would have instructed her to wait/slow down then move across to pass the lorry in the distance. It’s not unusual or unreasonable for cars to be accelerating at that part of the road as they are generally trying to get to 70mph after the roundabout.
There was no intent to ‘stop’ you from overtaking. Its neither a race nor a competition. If she had tried to stop you from overtaking then I would have used the dual controls to slow her down and explained the risks attached to such a daft attempt. I suspect the Mini Cooper I teach in is a bit more powerful than you anticipated and when she accelerated it caught you by surprise.
I did make the point to the pupil that she should be aware of the cars around her and look ahead and think about what’s likely to happen.
If you were behind as you say then the onus is on you to make sure it’s safe to overtake. You certainly did not HAVE to overtake and in fact overtaking is an at your own risk manoeuvre. You have no ‘right’ to overtake. You could have held back and waited to see what was going to happen and that would have been my choice were I in your position at the time. You did not HAVE to put yourselves in danger and in fact all you had to do should you have felt the situation is potentially dangerous is slow down. Getting faster won’t help. As I recall there was not a vehicle close to the rear of your car at the time that would have stopped you slowing if necessary.
I can assure you I take road safety VERY seriously. I teach people to drive safely and well in a businesslike and progressive manner. Not to be aggressive. I have an excellent pass rate and all my drivers are capable of driving to a very high standard when passed there test. I get VERY good feedback from the parents of my pupils about the standard of their driving when taught by myself. The SEADI also thought my standard of tuition was very good.
I used to teach in Edinburgh for BSM before starting in Fife where I live and I currently hold a Fleet Driver assessment certification along with my ADI badge and was involved in the driver improvement programme for drivers who had committed a traffic offence and were given the alternative of additional training or just the points and fine.
I take my reputation as an ADI very seriously indeed and can assure you I welcome all feedback positive or negative. After all if no-one said anything how can one improve.
One of the first things I tell my pupils is that just because I’m and ADI it does not make me a perfect driver and I, like others, can make mistakes. As such I continuously ask myself, ‘could I do that better?’
So while I obviously disagree with your assessment of the situation I do appreciate the fact that you took time to email your opinion.
Please feel free to contact me.
Regards
James Laird ADI
077XXXXXXXX
2nd Email
We were not directly behind your driver, we came off the roundabout and immediately manouvered into the outside lane. Your driver kept to the left. Drawing level, your pupil did seem to us to be overly accelerating thus preventing us from safely passing. We were not driving aggressively. However we did get the impression that your driver took the decision either by herself or had been told to 'put her foot down' It was a disgraceful show and could have put us all in a dangerous situation. If you remember the colour of the car then you obviously thought there had been issues. We came off that roundabout and took the outside lane to safely pass your learner driver. You or she took the decision not to let us pass safely. No amount of qualifications can make up for some common sense. I decline to phone as I think we totally disagree about the whole situation. We strongly felt that your driver was instructed not to let us pass.
Response
Well if you decline to phone then that’s fine. A pity as I feel this could be reasonably sorted over the phone without getting heated or aggravated. You seem from your email a reasonable person.
I do disagree but that’s not to imply I was looking to argue the point in an aggressive or unreasonable manner, but to try and clarify from my position what happened.
I did not say you were driving aggressively, rather that the pupil ‘got on with it’ a bit sharper than you expected. I feel that if you phone I might be able to explain better what happened from our position, the value the pupil got from it and you might therefore feel differently about it.
I remember the car as it took you a while to pass and the lorry was ahead and I remarked about it to the pupil and asked her what she was going to do about it as you were then alongside and If i remember correctly we slowed and you passed then we passed the lorry.
I can absolutely assure you that I would not permit any driver or myself to block or cause a danger to other drivers. I certainly would not disallow anyone to pass safely. At the end of the day as I tell the pupils you might be right if you do something but it won’t help if you get yourself killed. Why would I tell her or allow a pupil not to let somebody pass? If nothing else I don’t want to get hurt!
It’s a clearly marked learner tuition car and you could also have used common sense and taken the decision to hold back and wait.
Ask around, If you decide to overtake then the onus is on YOU to make sure it’s safe, legal and convenient. Not the person you are overtaking. What if, as you are passing, we move across to avoid an unexpected hazard in the road?
Bottom line. I spoke to the police this evening and to another ADI who is ex-traffic police and I got the same response from both. You should have allowed more time and space for the learner as she might do something unexpected.
You really should call as its only a chat to explain things and hopefully clear a few points up. You might just feel a bit different about it if you hear my side to what happened.
Lifes hard enough as an instructor with qualified drivers who won’t give learners any time and space to be aggravating those who will.
Regards
James Laird ADI
As yet he has not called. So he thinks the pupil should not make use of the flexibiity of the cars engine and drive slowly.
I reackon its all down to the driver of the blue car not planning ahead and if he speeds to pass then he compounds the problem. In anycase nothing happend apart from it took them a while to pass the 'learner'.
Oh and yes I am the instructor!
My female pupil while driving my Mini Cooper tuition car exits large multilane roundabout in left lane and accelerates briskly in 3rd to 50mph and changes to 5th and maintains acceleration up to 70mph.
Shortly after we start to accelerate the driver and passenger of a following blue 5 door mid size hatch back moves out to right lane of the 2 lane dual carrigeway and tries to pass but either their car is not as powerful or he is not as confident in his/her ability to pass.
Meantime I ask the pupil about the lorry in the distance and how will she deal with it with the offending car still trying to pass us while we are maintaining 70 mph and who now has to speed to pass. She said she will check her mirrors and slow down which is what she did.
I then received the following emails and my replys :-
1st email
From: JXXX MXXXXXXX [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 13 December 2007 15:31
To: [email protected]
Subject: Dangerous Driving.
We have just had the misfortune to be driving on the same stretch of road as one of your learner cars. We were joining the dual carriageway from Glenrothes to Kirkcaldy. We safely overtook the learner car, however what happened next defies belief. The learner driver put her foot down and attempted to stop us from overtaking. [This happened at the very beginning of the dual carriageway]. This was not only stupid, but could have been extremely dangerous. When I say she sped up, this is in fact an understatement. She really put her foot down to stop us from executing a perfectly legal manouvre. We had no alternative but to speed up to overtake her, thus putting ourselves in danger. I cannot believe how idiotic the whole incident was. We seriously considered calling the police when we arrived home. The instructor must need his head read. This all happened at around 3 pm. Not exactly a great advertisment for your company.
Mrs R MXXXXXX
Response
Dear Mrs MXXXXXX.
Please feel free to forward your number to me and I will happily call and discuss the alleged incident with you. Alternatively my number is 077XXXXXXXX.
On the one hand I can see how the situation could have been misunderstood and you might feel the way you do.
However, At no point was the manoeuvre dangerous and neither did the pupil attempt to stop you from overtaking. She stayed in the lane and used the acceleration of the car to make progress. I can assure you I saw you and watched to see where you were at all times.
You drive a blue car I believe?
You clearly realised that the car was an instruction vehicle and spotted the ‘L’ plate on the roof. Normally this is an indication that the driver is likely to be less experienced and possibly make mistakes and therefore it’s not unreasonable to be generous in your attitude and approach to the vehicle and give the learner additional time and space.
Firstly you had not actually past us when she accelerated, Granted you were in the outside lane and also accelerating but there’s no danger there. If you had been past us or level then I would have instructed her to wait/slow down then move across to pass the lorry in the distance. It’s not unusual or unreasonable for cars to be accelerating at that part of the road as they are generally trying to get to 70mph after the roundabout.
There was no intent to ‘stop’ you from overtaking. Its neither a race nor a competition. If she had tried to stop you from overtaking then I would have used the dual controls to slow her down and explained the risks attached to such a daft attempt. I suspect the Mini Cooper I teach in is a bit more powerful than you anticipated and when she accelerated it caught you by surprise.
I did make the point to the pupil that she should be aware of the cars around her and look ahead and think about what’s likely to happen.
If you were behind as you say then the onus is on you to make sure it’s safe to overtake. You certainly did not HAVE to overtake and in fact overtaking is an at your own risk manoeuvre. You have no ‘right’ to overtake. You could have held back and waited to see what was going to happen and that would have been my choice were I in your position at the time. You did not HAVE to put yourselves in danger and in fact all you had to do should you have felt the situation is potentially dangerous is slow down. Getting faster won’t help. As I recall there was not a vehicle close to the rear of your car at the time that would have stopped you slowing if necessary.
I can assure you I take road safety VERY seriously. I teach people to drive safely and well in a businesslike and progressive manner. Not to be aggressive. I have an excellent pass rate and all my drivers are capable of driving to a very high standard when passed there test. I get VERY good feedback from the parents of my pupils about the standard of their driving when taught by myself. The SEADI also thought my standard of tuition was very good.
I used to teach in Edinburgh for BSM before starting in Fife where I live and I currently hold a Fleet Driver assessment certification along with my ADI badge and was involved in the driver improvement programme for drivers who had committed a traffic offence and were given the alternative of additional training or just the points and fine.
I take my reputation as an ADI very seriously indeed and can assure you I welcome all feedback positive or negative. After all if no-one said anything how can one improve.
One of the first things I tell my pupils is that just because I’m and ADI it does not make me a perfect driver and I, like others, can make mistakes. As such I continuously ask myself, ‘could I do that better?’
So while I obviously disagree with your assessment of the situation I do appreciate the fact that you took time to email your opinion.
Please feel free to contact me.
Regards
James Laird ADI
077XXXXXXXX
2nd Email
We were not directly behind your driver, we came off the roundabout and immediately manouvered into the outside lane. Your driver kept to the left. Drawing level, your pupil did seem to us to be overly accelerating thus preventing us from safely passing. We were not driving aggressively. However we did get the impression that your driver took the decision either by herself or had been told to 'put her foot down' It was a disgraceful show and could have put us all in a dangerous situation. If you remember the colour of the car then you obviously thought there had been issues. We came off that roundabout and took the outside lane to safely pass your learner driver. You or she took the decision not to let us pass safely. No amount of qualifications can make up for some common sense. I decline to phone as I think we totally disagree about the whole situation. We strongly felt that your driver was instructed not to let us pass.
Response
Well if you decline to phone then that’s fine. A pity as I feel this could be reasonably sorted over the phone without getting heated or aggravated. You seem from your email a reasonable person.
I do disagree but that’s not to imply I was looking to argue the point in an aggressive or unreasonable manner, but to try and clarify from my position what happened.
I did not say you were driving aggressively, rather that the pupil ‘got on with it’ a bit sharper than you expected. I feel that if you phone I might be able to explain better what happened from our position, the value the pupil got from it and you might therefore feel differently about it.
I remember the car as it took you a while to pass and the lorry was ahead and I remarked about it to the pupil and asked her what she was going to do about it as you were then alongside and If i remember correctly we slowed and you passed then we passed the lorry.
I can absolutely assure you that I would not permit any driver or myself to block or cause a danger to other drivers. I certainly would not disallow anyone to pass safely. At the end of the day as I tell the pupils you might be right if you do something but it won’t help if you get yourself killed. Why would I tell her or allow a pupil not to let somebody pass? If nothing else I don’t want to get hurt!
It’s a clearly marked learner tuition car and you could also have used common sense and taken the decision to hold back and wait.
Ask around, If you decide to overtake then the onus is on YOU to make sure it’s safe, legal and convenient. Not the person you are overtaking. What if, as you are passing, we move across to avoid an unexpected hazard in the road?
Bottom line. I spoke to the police this evening and to another ADI who is ex-traffic police and I got the same response from both. You should have allowed more time and space for the learner as she might do something unexpected.
You really should call as its only a chat to explain things and hopefully clear a few points up. You might just feel a bit different about it if you hear my side to what happened.
Lifes hard enough as an instructor with qualified drivers who won’t give learners any time and space to be aggravating those who will.
Regards
James Laird ADI
As yet he has not called. So he thinks the pupil should not make use of the flexibiity of the cars engine and drive slowly.
I reackon its all down to the driver of the blue car not planning ahead and if he speeds to pass then he compounds the problem. In anycase nothing happend apart from it took them a while to pass the 'learner'.
Oh and yes I am the instructor!
) and other drivers would seem a bit shocked that a Learner would be doing the speed limit in a 70 whilst sitting in my blind spot, creeping past at 71.
although I admire your patience in dealing with them(just expect this type of jobsworth to contact the adi or similar to take it further) 
