The ongoing seatbelt advertising campaign from Think! shows just what happens in a collision at 30mph if you don’t wear a seatbelt.
Here is the pre-watershed version:
Road Safety Minister Paul Clark said, “If you are involved in an accident while not wearing a seat belt then your body experiences a series of three collisions damaging vital internal organs. This campaign reminds drivers that – no matter how short their journey or how slowly they are driving – they are risking their life if they set off without putting their seat belt on.
“I hope this campaign will help everyone realise that they need to belt up every time they get in a car.”
With recent research showing that drivers are less likely to belt up on low speed, short journeys on familiar roads, the £1.3 million THINK! Campaign hopes to show that drivers are still risking their lives. Drivers are twice as likely to die in a crash if they do not wear a seat belt and if everyone belted up, one life a day could be saved.
The full advert can only be aired after 9pm due to its graphic content.
Many driving instructors will already be aware of coaching and indeed, some are already incorporating it into their lessons. ‘Coaching’ is the big buzz word at the moment in the industry with the DSA attempting to incorporate new and improved techniques into teaching and testing with a view to creating much more responsible drivers than are created using traditional ‘instructional’ methods. Indeed, ‘coaching of driving skills and methods’ is listed in the competency framework for CPD for driving instructors and with the EU Hermes project focusing on ‘coaching and optimal communication skills’, you can expect to see a lot of development in this area over the coming months and years.
Coaching is not just a case of asking questions (which instructors do already as part of their everyday teaching). It is about asking questions which raise the awareness and responsibility from within the coachee. There are many tools that instructors can use from within the coaching toolbox and the effects of using coaching with learners can be quite profound.
Sir John Whitmore & Ged Wilmot
To date, there has been little information available about coaching specifically for driving instructors. Last year, the University of East London ran its pilot course – a Postgraduate qualification in ‘Coaching for Driver Development’ in which a handful of the best professional driver trainers and coaches from all aspects of the driving world were invited to attend. I was fortunate enough to be one of the delegates invited to attend that course, along with my good friend and colleague Kathy Higgins of Insight2Drive. We have recognised that courses and workshops for driving instructors are few and far between and so we have developed a one day coaching course specifically designed for Approved Driving Instructors.
The one day ‘Practical Coaching Techniques for Driving Instructors’ interactive workshop offers driving instructors essential information which can be incorporated into the everyday work of an ADI. The content will include basic principles and benefits of using coaching in driver training, what makes a good coach, and lots of practical coaching techniques. There are two workshop dates currently available, Monday 22nd February 2010 in Oldham and Thursday 18th March 2010 in Liverpool.
Both courses will be run by me (Ged Wilmot), Claire Wilmot and Kathy Higgins. Having a wealth of driver coaching experience, we are excited to be able to offer such a course to ADI’s throughout the North West of England.
The course fee is £139, which includes lunch and refreshments. Spaces are limited and going fast, so you’ll need to act quickly!
If you would like further information about the course, please contact Claire Wilmot on 07956 104160 or complete the contact form on the Active Driving Solutions website.
A recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in America has found that hybrid vehicles are involved in more accidents with pedestrians and cyclists than regular petrol and diesel vehicles.
The study found that 0.9% of hybrid cars were involved in accidents with pedestrians compared to a 0.6% pedestrian accident figure for regular cars.
The NHTSA’s report may help support the need for fitting hybrid cars with noisemaking systems to alert pedestrians, cyclists and especially blind people. With no engine noise the hybrid vehicles can potentially put pedestrians and cyclists at significant risk.
In Japan, hybrid cars have become the country’s top selling vehicles. A transport ministry official said: “We have received opinions from automobile users and vision-impaired people that they feel hybrid vehicles are dangerous. Blind people depend on sounds when they walk, but there are no engine sounds from hybrid vehicles when running at low speed and on the electric motor.”
The ministry consulted with a panel of police, consumers, vision impaired groups, scholars and the automobile industry to discuss options. In the first meeting, it was decided to introduce a sound making function. The panel has not decided on what kind of sound should be used, only that it should induce a response of caution.
Car manufacturer Ford is introducing innovative new seatbelts that inflate like airbags to give extra protection to passengers in the event of a collision.
Ford is fitting the back seats of vehicles with belts that inflate automatically during a crash.
Ford will be fitting the new seatbelts into the new Ford Explorer 4 x 4 which goes into production in 2010. Experts say the new technology will be particularly effective at preventing broken ribs, internal damage and bruising.
Inflating over the shoulder and torso in a mere 40 milliseconds, a cylindrical airbag stretches from the buckle to the shoulder and fits inside a pocket in the belt.
In the past year, drivers in Merseyside were fined more than £1.2m for using their mobile phones while driving.
The Liverpool Daily Post reported that between April and September this year, police gave out tickets to more than 20,000 drivers for using handheld mobiles while in charge of their vehicles.
Even a driving instructor was among those hit with an £60 penalty and three points on their licence. The driving instructor was teaching a learner driver at the time!
Merseyside Police warned that the number of killed or seriously injured on the road could potentially increase unless they enforced the law. The cause of accidents while driving is not recorded, so there is no available data for how many people may have perished on UK roads because of mobile use.
COW, the graphic texting & driving public information film which we discussed on the Latics blog in August is being given its TV premiere by BBC Wales next week after becoming a global hit on the internet.
The film stars young actors from south Wales and shows a teenager killing four people in a crash when she sends a text from her mobile phone whilst driving.
Filmmaker Peter Watkins-Hughes produced it for Gwent Police as an educational tool for young drivers. It will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Two Wales on Monday 2nd November at 10pm (Sky Channel 991).
Almost a quarter of a million young motorists are driving illegally because they do not have any insurance cover, according to a report released today by BBC’s Newsbeat.
They found that more than 20% of 17 to 20 year olds are not covered by a valid car insurance policy, which amounts to a staggering 243,000 illegal young drivers on our roads.
Many illegal drivers cite the huge cost of an insurance policy as being the reason for not having cover. Yet the risks of not having a policy are huge, not just for themselves, but also for anybody they may be unfortunate enough to crash into.
The BBC reports the story of 21 year old Gary Street, who was hit by an uninsured driver at 30mph in Manchester two years ago.
A £2.3m advertising campaign launched last week to warn of the risks of driving whilst under the influence of drugs has received a mixed reception from the British public and road safety experts.
The television advert warns motorists that police can spot the involuntary signs of someone being under the influence of drugs if they are stopped. These signs include severely dilated or constricted pupils. The advert shows a car carrying several young people with their eyes enlarged, adding: “Your eyes will give you away.”
Young men aged between 17 and 29 are thought to be most likely to drive while on illegal drugs. Indeed, a recent survey in Scotland suggested that 81% of clubbers have driven whilst under the influence of illegal drugs.
The Department for Transport (DfT) estimates that as many as one in five drivers or motorcyclists killed in road accidents may have an impairing drug (legal or illegal) in their system. Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said in a recent interview, “Whatever one’s views on drug taking, we’ve got to make it absolutely socially unacceptable to drive while under the influence of drugs, because it can kill.”
A shocking new video has been made for school pupils in an attempt to reduce crashes caused by drivers texting whilst driving.
The short 30-minute film called ‘COW’ shows Cassie Cowan, a teenage girl, killing four people as a result of her using her mobile phone to send a text. A clip from the film is shown below…
It includes footage of all the emergency services attending the crash scene, including the air ambulance, police and firefighters.
Natalie Brennan, an Oldham CID Detective Constable was convicted of drink driving in March after being caught driving three times over the legal drink drive limit last October.As well as receiving a fine of £120 and a driving ban of 9 months, she was forced to resign from the Police force following a disciplinary hearing.
However, a week later she was reinstated after Greater Manchester Chief Constable Peter Fahy reviewed the case. ‘Exceptional personal circumstances’ has been given as the reason for her reinstatement.
The decision has caused outrage amongst road safety campaigners. A spokesperson from Roadpeace accused the Chief Constable of “sending out the wrong message”, whist a spokeswoman from Brake commented: “The police have got some explaining to do if one day a driving offence is deemed dangerous enough for a person to resign and the next day it is not.”
A recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in America has found that hybrid vehicles are involved in more accidents with pedestrians and cyclists than regular petrol and diesel vehicles.
In the past year, drivers in Merseyside were fined more than £1.2m for using their mobile phones while driving.
They found that more than 20% of 17 to 20 year olds are not covered by a valid car insurance policy, which amounts to a staggering 243,000 illegal young drivers on our roads.
Natalie Brennan, an Oldham CID Detective Constable was convicted of drink driving in March after being caught driving three times over the legal drink drive limit last October.
