My response to recent article by Dylan Campbell at Drive.com.au…
Article link: https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/expert-says-driver-training-wont-prevent-road-deaths/
While I completely understand where Professor Stuart Newstead is coming from in terms of speed, kinetic energy and crash outcome, to say “driver training doesn’t work,” is completely ignorant!
I dare say Professor Stuart Newstead doesn’t fully understand what the driver training and licencing system is actually like in Australia?
A quote from this article says, “There have been no programs that have been shown to make the sort of difference we need.”
What programs exactly are we talking about? I guarantee there have been plenty of driver training programs that have been ignored and not tested and researched!
Another quote says, “We’ve tried driver training over and over and over again, and we haven’t come up with a formula.”
What have we tried? Why not keep trying?
In Victoria, Australia, many (not all) learner drivers (aged 16-20) learn with a supervising driver like mum and dad only for their 120 hours of practice, come to a professional just before the drive test with a huge knowledge gap and need to unlearn bad habits.
When they call to ask about professional driving lessons for the first time ever, they say, “I’m a good driver, I just need to learn parking!”
If a learner driver is 21 years of age and over in Victoria, Australia, they don’t have a mandatory hours requirement, meaning they can easily do 5 to 10 hours in a testing area only and get their solo drivers licence, never having driven on a high speed road. The next day, they can enter a freeway solo at 110 km/h with 0 prior experience!
Another issue in the industry is the lack of auditing of professional driving instructors. I’ve had my authority to teach people to drive a light vehicle for over 10 years and not once have I been checked up on.
How do we know that “professionals” are delivering the right “formula” for driver training?
Another quote, “Defensive driver training was teaching the wrong skills, suggested Professor Newstead. Often people go, ‘it’s about being out on the skidpan and being able to do emergency braking and swerving’. No, it’s not. Risk management is about saying, ‘let’s never get into the situation where I’d need that skill’.”
I completely agree with Professor Stuart Newstead about reactive skills, that realistically a driver on public roads shouldn’t need if they are proactive! But to experience emergency braking is an important exercise so the drivers see first hand the reaction time, the braking capabilities, the stopping distance that is needed and fully appreciate avoiding altogether getting themselves into that situation.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my response to this article, saying “driver training doesn’t work” is completely ignorant when you don’t entirely understand the system.
While I can’t stand impractical lower speed limits, I understand how lower speed can help reduce the crash outcome, but that doesn’t mean we don’t focus on the drivers and their capabilities.
I am so tired of working in an industry that is an absolute mess and free for all!
Professor Stuart Newstead needs to look deeper into driver training and what will work, because there are people like myself who pour their heart into educating drivers on low risk, proactive driving (not reactive), yet we are left to feel completely ignored.
To note, most people are not obeying posted speed limits. This video is proof of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9fMI80wG4Y – I have plenty of other videos to prove lower speed limits are mostly ignored and disobeyed.
If you would like to contact me about this, email crudedriving@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Courtenay Rufus
Director and Driving Educator
CRUDE Ultimate Driving Education
Thanks for reading this blog post! 🙂
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