Tuesday 10 September 2013

No response yet

Title says it all. Not heard anything back from Nippers School of Motoring or Steve Eggleton yet.

Perhaps they are still reading the complaint letter as it was four pages long in the end!

If anyone has found this blog as they have him as an instructor, bad luck, see if you can change. If you want the full story, start with part one and work through, I'm happy to answer any questions.

I had a nightmare last night that I had  passed my first driving test. I was really close to passing as a number of lucky things happened - I got the kind examiner in a good mood, almost empty roads, the manoevre I was best at on an empty street and the examiner ignored many of the little mistakes that I made that I got minor faults for on later tests. However I was in no way a safe and competent driver  as I couldn't

- drive and read road signs (my independent drive on this test was just 'first right, then left, then third exit at the roundabout, no sign reading as on later tests).
-meet other cars
-pull in and move off safely on a road with traffic
-deal with double roundabouts
-use my mirrors safely when manoevring, especially around roundabouts.
-drive at a speed commensurate with the road conditions
-work out what speed I should be doing
-hazard spot competently
-drive without getting flustered and overwhelmed
-deal with traffic lights at junctions eg filter arrows, when I had to stop and wait for opposing traffic. On several occasions when turning right and catching sight of the red light for the traffic behind me, I slammed on my brakes.
-couldn't parallel park or bay park
-didn't know all the things to look out for when reversing around a corner and what to do if I was obstructing traffic.
-couldn't hill start
-couldn't find a comfortable driving position
-couldn't use lights, wipers or indicators properly
-Couldnt deal with any roundabouts that were unusual or didn't fit an exact pattern
-was still coming to a complete stop at EVERY junction, crossroads and roundabout before looking at the the oncoming traffic to see if it was safe to go. Fine when you are in a marked car as a learner, but as a new driver you run the risk of being shunted from behind as the drivers behind are also watching the traffic and if the road is empty they will expect you to react faster and move faster.

Steve was happy to let me potentially pass the test with all those dangerous gaps in my knowledge. My second instructor was shocked as she knew ( as did he) that I have young children and this would have put them at serious risk.

The cynical side of me noticed that the examiner and Steve knew each other and had worked together in the past. But I wouldn't like to say anything more about that as it is a supposition and unfair to both parties (even incompetent Steve) to say more than that.


No comments:

Post a Comment