Forward Vision 114 October 2015

The Newsletter of Chelmsford Advanced Motorists

www.iamchelmsford.org.uk

Issue 114 October and November 2015 IAM Group 7223 Registered Charity No 1059372

Safer Essex Roads Partnership

Page 2 Chelmsford Advanced Motorists Issue 114

A few road signs in Oman that you won't find in the Highway Code.

Sent in by Paul Carlier. Note that the sand dunes sign has been sandblasted. See page 20 for his letter and page 23 for the third picture.


Associates, Full Members & Guests Welcome

Forthcoming Group Meetings These are usually held on the 2nd Monday of each month

at the Essex Police Sports and Social Club, Which is through the Police vehicle park at the very end of St. Margarets Road,

Chelmsford.

Group Meetings start promptly at 8pm, so please arrive at around 7.45pm.

Make a note in your diary and please be there!

http://www.essexexplorer.co.uk/cam.kmz

Disclaimer—Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this Newsletter are those of the individual writers and they do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, nor those of the Chelmsford and District Group of Advanced Motorists. Their accuracy has not been verified.

Notice—Data Protection Act: records are held of members personal details submitted on their appli-cation form. The information will be used solely for the Group’s administration purposes and will not be passed to any third party.

CM2 6DS

http://goo.gl/maps/VrEwi

Date Topic Speaker

Monday 9th November

Liaison officer between the Department for Transport and the Association of Chief

Police Officers Jeremy Moore OBE

Monday 14th December

Annual Christmas buffet & quiz night


to our new Associate and Full Members.

We look forward to seeing and talking to them at our monthly Group nights

We are a friendly bunch, so don’t be worried about coming to our Group nights if you are on your own.

Make yourself known to John who will greet you at the desk, he will find one of us to come and talk to you. John will also try to get you to part with some money for the raffle.

There will be Senior Observers, Observers and generally an Examiner at the evening and you will be able to get answers to any questions that you have.

Please come along, we’ll even give you tea or coffee and there is a bar - for light refreshments obviously!

Terry Joyce

Reginald Macdonald Althorne Arthur Winn South Woodham Ferrers

Richard Kurzyca Billericay Christine Bhatt South Woodham Ferrers

Anne Thaw Mashbury Rupert Holmes Ford End

Sat Lal Brentwood Liz Woodhouse Chelmsford

Paul Scoging Chelmsford Lisa Mackay Billericay

Electronic Newsletter & Emails Whilst new members have been getting their copy electronically for some time it would be helpful if more people joined in with the electronic age and did the same. We are not going to force anybody to move to electronic but we would appreciate it if you consider letting the newsletter editor know if you are willing to receive yours by email.

In any event for the purpose of telling people about Group nights and the occasional event such as the skid pan it is useful to have as many e-mail addresses as possible so if you are not currently on our mailing list it would point to us not having your email address. Please let the newsletter editor know and he will pass it on.

Please let us know if you change your email address.

Welcome


Please remember: Do telephone both your Observer and Scott Bannister ( Associates Co-ordinator ) immediately after your test.

Congratulations to these latest Members of our Group

who have Passed

‘The Test’.

To all those people who have passed their test: It would be appreciated if you could write a few words thanking your Observer and maybe something about the process and your test, to give those New Associates an insight into the process of learning Advanced Driving.

Test No Name Test Date Observer

1056 Mark Evans 12th August Graham Robson

1057 Geoff Benn 18th August George Locker

1058 Dan Conway 14th September Scott Bannister

1059 Vici Royle 29th September Scott Bannister

See page 2 & 23 for photos of our members receiving their certificates.

Roll of Honour


From the Chairman Well folks this is my first report as chairman for the group magazine. As I have only

been in post a short while this first report might not be up to the standard of the previ-

ous chair.

This brings me to my first point. Reflecting back over the last three years I hope you

will all agree that Scott was committed and made a great job of leading our group. I

just hope I can fill his boots. I hope you will join me in thanking him on behalf of the

group for his efforts.

Secondly I would like to equally thank the committee for the time and effort they give

up for no financial reward, without which the group would not function. We are always

looking for extra committee members and I would welcome anyone interested.

Finally sitting in the wings is Sally. Sally has the tough job of finding guest speakers

for our group nights. I would like to offer my thanks for her hard work but equally draw

your attention to the events. If you are reading this having never turned up on a

Monday night then you are missing out. So far in my chairmanship we have had a

great talk by committee member Clifford regarding his exploits home and abroad as a

surgeon. Our last speaker was extremely entertaining bring humour to his life in the

Police.

So for those regular attenders I will see you at the next meeting and to those who

don't attend it will be fantastic to meet you.

Regards

Steve Wright


Please contact me

by email at

[email protected]

~~~~~~~~ Editorial ~~~~~~~~

Terry Joyce

Hello,

Unfortunately there are no photos of our members receiving their certifi-

cates in this edition but I hope you enjoy the pictures that have been sent

in.

Is there any subject that you would like to see covered in an article?

Thank you to those of you that have contributed to this edition. Please

keep the letters and articles coming.

Many Thanks to Sue Sweetland for her patient and educated assistance

in producing this Newsletter.


Our Group Enquiry number: - 07757 399897

Honorary Life Members Mr Mike Corbett, Mr Glyn Jarrett, Mrs Ruth Jarrett, Mr Dave Travers, Mr Colin Snow.

Group contact information

Chairman

Steve Wright

Secretary Susan Sweetland

Treasurer John Johnston

Membership Secretary Ken Carrington

Website Editor Jon Ward

Newsletter Editor Terry Joyce

Events Organiser Sally Langley

Publicity John Stone

Group Contact Selva Seeni

Committee Member Dr Clifford Murira

Committee Member John Ockmore

Committee Member Ken Howard

Committee Member Malcolm Kentish

Committee Member Anthony Shilson

Committee Member Norman Smith

Committee Member Terry Hyland

Committee

Observer Examiner Gaynor Manthorpe

Associates Co-ordinator & Chief Observer

Scott Bannister


Well, that was a nice little burst of summer, wasn’t it? Sadly, we couldn’t expect it to last any longer – it probably would have resulted in a hosepipe ban!! I’m writing this on the 5

th October and I wonder if any of you watched the television

programme about Aston Martins (and Paul Hollywood) last night. I’ve always had a thing about Astons, particularly the DB5, so a whole programme about them meant I was a very happy bunny! The DB10 is something else – a car designed for drifting round corners with a nose reminiscent of a shark. Only 10 of these beasts have been manufactured and not one of them is for sale – shame, I quite fancied driving like James Bond….. Susan Sweetland

A Bird’s Eye View

Our Observers Ron Adams

Scott Bannister

Pat Clements

Philip Cooper

Paul Crosby

Jamie Drummond

Tony Hawes

Helen Jeffries

Terry Joyce

Rob Laird

George Locker

Graham Lowe

Graham Lowe

Gaynor Manthorpe

Dr Clifford Murira

John Ockmore

Graham Robson

Roger Spall

John Tullett

Mark Warbey

Brian Williams

Rob Wise


It is with great thanks to Chelmsford IAM Group and Isobel Stone, one of our senior members of SLAM (South of London Advanced Motorists), which allowed members of our group to attend a Test Track Day at Dunton. For those who have not heard of it, I certainly hadn't, this is Ford's Technical Research Centre. Located literally off of the A127 in Essex, it is a massive facility with various departments for differing tech-nologies. However it also holds a humongous test track shaped like a dog bone with two large banked ends connected with two long straights. The first bend was a short right hand followed by a long left then down the long straight and into a long left hand bend before hitting a short right hand and onto the final straight. It is certainly a sight to behold and the track can not be seen in its entirety from the ground.

Stepping up to show off the talents of the SLAM group were Dave Willis (Senior Ob-server), Woo Song (Observer) and myself (Observer). Attendance was sharp at 0945 in the morning on what looked to be a promising day. The course was full with about 21 people in attendance mostly from the Chelmsford IAM Group and five of the Chelmsford IAM Observers who were running the course. A very short briefing took place in the car park revealing all those in attendance, a real diverse group of individ-uals of all ages and abilities along with a varied spectrum of vehicles. There were small vehicles both front and rear wheel drive like the Seat Leon, VW Golf and BMW Z3. Larger vehicles with performance engines such as the Vauxhall Astra VXR and Mistubishi Evo, all the way across to family vehicles like the Ford Mondeo Estate and VW Passat Estate and 4x4 vehicles like the BMW X3 and VW Touran. Everyone was welcome whatever vehicle, whatever ability and experience people had. But only once we had paid an extremely reasonable £15 which all went to the aid of the Essex Air Ambulance, a very worthy cause. A word of thanks should also go to Ford for allowing us to use their expensive facilities completely free of charge.

Once the briefing was complete we all lined up on the entrance ramp to the course ready for an introductory lap of the course in small groups of 4/5 led by an Observer from Chelmsford. Rules were ringing in my mind of what we could and could not do but mostly that we were here for fun and to learn what your vehicle and you were capable of. The first two groups went on their way, cars peeling off of the ramp straight onto the course and immediately out of sight doing the first of four warm up laps. Vehicles then emerged safely down the back straight and off to the far left end of the course, engines revving loudly as they seemed to race past with drivers look-ing understandably tense with both hands planted at the classic 10 - 2 position, but with a strange look of satisfaction on their faces as they sped past those waiting!

Soon it was my turn after watching Dave and Woo driving up the course like a couple of pros, I went on my way. Down the waiting ramp turning right onto the course fol-lowing the instructor on the first of the four laps. Despite my driving experience and abilities, in the police force, I was still nervous and excited at what this course held; bearing in mind you can’t see the course until you actually get onto it. So onto the course I went, hitting the end of the straight before the first of a series of banked curves. It was imperative to get the vehicle up to speed before the banked curves so I was heavy on the drive getting through the gears quickly and smoothly.

Continued on Page 11

Dunton, a visitors tale


Dunton, a visitors tale continued

Approaching those bends for the first time it was hard to read and interpret the banking and curve you are about to hit. With no limit points to read it was a case of trial and error for the first approach.

These banked curves are designed to allow continual driving at speed for test pur-poses, banked at what I was informed is a 41 degree angle and a neutral speed of 47mph they are an intimidating sight. Neutral speed is where you drive around the curve at 47mph with no input in the steering if you were brave enough to take on the challenge and remove your hands from the steering wheel you would find the car continues around the curve on its own due to natural scientific forces.

The first bend loomed, I could see the banking leaning menacingly to the right, and before I knew it we were on! The car leaned heavily to the right which was unnerv-ing at best, a very alien feeling compared to normal road driving. As soon as my vehicle was on the bank the traction control instantly hated it and started to flash away, not that there was any sign of a skid or loss of control. Initially I wanted to slow down and could feel the car being pulled down onto the lower flatter section, it took me a while to fight the instinct to slow and started to accelerate pushing the car up and onto the higher part of the banking. Once up there and above 40mph the car started to hunker down and push itself into the banking making the drive more solid and firm. Confidence grew as did the speed and away I went taking the banking easily at 70mph. Soon the banking stopped vision up and the straight comes into view, a glorious arrow straight 2 lane carriageway. Down the straight and that soon disappears before the next series of banked curves. The first a long left hander which approaching at high speeds is hard to judge knowing your going to be leaning over heavily to the left very shortly. I choose fourth as I approached at 60mph and hit the bend hard being pushed straight back into my seat and pushing the car around that long banked section. Finally the last right hand section comes into view which is short and sweet before back to the car park down the long straight that completes the circuit.

Once everyone was confident with the track and the cars were nice and warm it was onto the first activity, agility and steering. A series of cones were set up on the straights, the first set a nice and open slalom, a second set was close and tight and a last set was a figure of eight. All three designed to test your ability to steer the car smoothly and accurately

However and more importantly, lunch break, and as per normal British weather the heavens opened and the rain fell. This however did not stop the next session; in fact it made it far more interesting and educated a lot of the drivers.

This was a fantastic day with huge learning curves for everyone who had attended. It is an extremely safe and fun way to learn what you and your vehicle are capable of in a controlled situation. I can only say to others to take up the opportunity when it next arises. I will definitely do this again and will be recommending to those I have the pleasure to observe at SLAM to come along and gain the knowledge that I have been fortunate enough to gain. Chelmsford Group have really mastered this activity and it is very popular, so do book your space promptly.

Dave Wilson


Safer Essex Roads Partnership Scott and I were invited to the launch of a major initiative to try a make the roads safer in Essex. It was a very professional affair and as you can see from the picture on the front cover there were a lot of interesting vehicles there and the promise of the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance landing on the lawn of Hylands House, unfortu-nately it was called to an incident. SERP is what was known as the Essex Casualty Reduction Board. This latest initiative from Essex County Council with partners seems to have some very high expectations or should I say targets.

Nicola Foster, Chair of SERP, said: “We hope to recruit more partners, people and organisations to work with us towards a vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on Essex roads. The vision is aspirational but one we believe can be achieved together. “We are also launching the Small Changes Pledge. It is everybody’s responsibility to make sure everyone using the road makes it home safely.

“We believe if everyone makes a small improvement to in their driving, riding or walk-ing behaviour, collectively it could make a large change to the numbers of people killed or seriously injured on the roads. Making a small change to how you drive, ride your motorbike or bicycle, walk and cross roads or ride your horse on the road could really improve your safety and the safety of others. See http://www.saferessexroads.org

After Nicola’s introduction, there were a number of speakers, a blessing by the Bishop of Bradwell, Viscount Simon, a Trustee for Guild of Experienced Motorists and Michael Woodforde MBE, Executive Chairman for the Safer Roads Foundation. Michael’s talk, illustrated with slides was very impressive. He explained what work the Safer Road Foundation did around the world and the difference some basic engineering work had on reducing casualties. They have worked on a number of projects in Essex.

The Safer Essex Roads Partnership (SERP) comprises Essex County Council,

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Thurrock Council, Essex Police, Essex Fire and

Rescue Service, Highways England and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Trust.

They promote road safety and casualty reduction through a number of activities,

interventions, programmes and products which involve a combination of education, engagement, engineering and enforcement.

In order to achieve their target they review the previous year’s collision data to evaluate what we have achieved and understand whether we are targeting the right road user groups in the right way at the right time.

Continued on Page 13

https://saferessexroads.org/serp-pledge/

https://saferessexroads.org/serp-pledge/


Safer Essex Roads Partnership continued

Each week SERP ‘Surround-A-Town’ (SAT) in Essex, Southend or Thurrock for a day. They stop drivers displaying the ‘fatal four’ behaviours; speeding, drink or drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt or using a hand held mobile phone. Drivers are offered the chance to attend one of our ever-popular courses but are also spoken to about road safety by one of the SERP partners. The partners not direct-ly involved in the enforcement element will be in the town centre talking to shop-pers and commuters about road safety issues relevant to them.

Other teams also go into schools to deliver ‘Speedwatch’. This activity stops drivers who speed past the school, offering them the choice to pay their speeding ticket or to talk to the children. With the children asking drivers tough questions such as, “What would you tell my Mummy if you ran me over and killed me to-day?”, this is far from an easy option.

The partnership’s purpose is to reduce death and serious injury on Essex roads to zero, an ambitious vision and one which they cannot tackle alone: each road user plays a part.

SERP have set a challenging interim target to reduce death and serious injuries by 40% by 2020 (from the baseline average of 2005-2009), which equates to fewer than 607 deaths and serious injuries, and fewer than 4,108 slight injuries, by 2020.

The reason for the ambitious target is that 607 lives cut short, permanently changed, or involved in serious injury resulting in hospitalisation and time off work each year, is far too high. Many more lives – of the families and friends of those injured – are also changed in the instant their loved one is injured in a road traffic collision.

In 2014 there were 39 deaths (more than three each month), 708 serious injuries (more than 13 each week) and 4,728 slight injuries (more than 13 each day!). Records indicate that for every injury collision reported to the police, there are 10 damage only collisions; so that’s 130 ‘bangs, knocks and bumps’ in Essex every day. The only thing that I found disappointing about the day was that they had invited a numbers of Advanced Driving groups along but when I looked on their website there is no mention of any of them and no links. As you can see the Air Ambulance

eventually arrived.

By Terry Joyce

https://saferessexroads.org/collision-data/


Happy Birthday YDS. On the 16th October the Young Driver Scheme will be 10 Years old.

The Young Driver Scheme has been running since 2005 to enable young people to develop car handling skills in an "off road" location prior to going onto the public highway.

They get almost one hour of professional tuition from a DSA Approved Driving Instructor in a dual controlled car. The vehicles are provided by the Driving Schools. All ADIs on this scheme are from DICE (Driving Instructors Club of Essex). The driving takes place on private roads at Earls Colne Busi-ness Park

This scheme has been a great success, many of the applicants passing their test first time.

There are over 200 young drivers each month being taught by 40 driving schools.

The success is down to the hard work put in by organiser Nicola Hyland, her husband Terry and Daughter Kirsty. Ken Howard is a great supporter of the scheme attending each month to talk to the parents and young drivers about the benefits of Advanced Driving.

Representatives from the Police and Fire Brigade also attend each month giving the young drivers advice on various driving related topics.

See Page 15 for more details.

Terry Joyce ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three millionth square metre is an incredible milestone 17 August 2015 Highways engineers laid the three millionth square metre of Essex road surfacing today, as part of the largest road improvement programme of its kind ever undertak-en in Essex. “This is a fantastic achievement,” said Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways Maintenance, Cllr Eddie Johnson, who was on hand at the junction of Church Road and Park Hall Road, Gosfield, to witness the event. “This is an incredible 510 miles. That’s approximately the equivalent of driving by car from Chelmsford to Frankfurt. “This programme is all about preventative maintenance work, which keeps crucial to keeping our road network in optimum condition and stops problems before they happen. “The team is working extremely hard to keep up with a very challenging county-wide schedule,” added Cllr Johnson.

10


Notification of Events

There has been a lot of positive feedback from events organised by the Group. If you would like to be kept informed of any up and coming events please make sure that l have your current email address.

Young Driver Scheme

Do you know of anyone who is not 17 years of age, but wants to learn how to drive?

Chelmsford IAM group supports this road safety scheme to give people the opportunity to learn basic car control skills in Driving School Dual Controlled cars on private land before they go on the public Highway.

getting behind the wheel (again, or for the first time).

Full details of the scheme, a letter from Essex Police and a map may be viewed, and the application Form can be downloaded, from

www.youngdriverscheme.org

Lessons, lasting for one hour, are run on the third Sunday of most months at Earls Colne (near Coggeshall). There is an initial Registration Fee of £40 which covers registration and the first one hour lesson. Subsequent lessons cost £25. Lessons must be booked in advance.

The scheme is intended primarily for 16 year-olds but, if vacancies permit, places may be offered to 15 year-olds or even to older people who are nervous about

Alternatively, forms may be obtained from the YDS Organiser.

Nicola Hyland, 67 Main Road,

St Lawrence Bay, Southminster,

CM0 7NA

Dedicated Mobile number

07847 645632 or

[email protected]


A Tale of Woe

Let me set the scene for you. Location: half way between the Cock and St Anne's

Castle on the road between Boreham and Little Waltham. It's one of my favourite

roads for bends and the reason I was on it was less for sheer pleasure but more for

observer training.

So, there I was, happily minding my own business, driving badly so that the trainee

observer could pick up my many faults and help put them right. It's not as easy as it

looks – whether from the trainee observer point of view or mine. I've been driving the

IAM way for so long now, it can be difficult to make some of the required mistakes.

Anyway, what happened wasn't a deliberate mistake so I can't blame that.

The road has been recently resurfaced and a fine job I thought they had made of it.

Unfortunately the resurfacing stops at the edge and it was the edge that was my

undoing. Catching a side pothole; is not uncommon but this one was obviously a

spirited attempt by somebody to tunnel through to see some kangaroos. So a bit of a

jolt to put it mildly - followed by the steering being a bit impaired. I figured all was not

well in the tyre department and stopped with the hazards on. Sure enough - fully de-

flated front nearside tyre. In the good old days it would have been a speedy tyre

change and a few choice swear-words but not this time.

I am fortunate enough to have a car with no spare tyre. It does have a bottle of glue

which is supposed to be just as good. I'll not bore you with the details but the bottle of

glue did little more than pollute the grass verge. I'm sure it would be just fine for a

slow puncture from a nail or something similar but with a pretty severe gash it turned

out to be a triumph of hope over reality. Because of the nature of the drive i.e. short

and local and we were alternating between cars, neither of us had a mobile phone

with us – nor wallet. Faced with a potential walk which I'm sure would have been

medically very beneficial and potentially ruining the actual wheel as well as the tyre

which was now officially a write off.

I decided to save my legs and drove to civilisation (Boreham is classed as semi-

civilised) at 12 mph. It was fascinating watching the cars behind who had no idea why

I was driving as I was and failing miserably to do an overtake. A number made it but

several thought there must be a really good reason for my behaviour and that it would

be best to stick with me. One even tooted the horn which I thought helped a lot.

Anyway, eventually with a bit a bit of car juggling and a borrowed jack (car doesn't

have one of them either) I am now back on the road, albeit somewhat poorer. It does

call into question the wisdom of having a car with no spare tyre. I know punctures are

far less common than they once were but they still do happen and if the bottle of gunk

doesn't work you are stuck up a certain creek, completely paddle-less.

Scott Bannister


I have a car much like Scott's, though mine has a "space saver" spare wheel and tyre and I have had three punc-tures in the last 80,000 miles.

The rolling radius of the spare is 21 inches, about an inch smaller than a road wheel, and so the spare wheel ro-tates about 5% faster. The width of the spare is 115 mm, compared with 185 or 195 mm for a road wheel, and the tyre runs at 60 psi instead of

26psi, and so the spare offers barely 50% of the contact patch area.

This car has rear wheel drive. If you fit the spare to the front of the car, the car barely steers and will not stop in any reasonable distance and certainly not in a straight line. It is frankly petrifying above 30 mph. Or, if you fit the spare to the rear of the car, the car steers and stops but you know you are putting more wear and tear on the differential in a mile than it has ever had in its life.

The spare wheel fits into a recess in the floor of the boot. This recess is too small to hold a road wheel. One of my punctures happened when the boot was full and yes, I drove it flat for the six or so miles back home.

My friend had a puncture on the A12 a mile or two north of Feering, and drove the car until she could leave the main road. In both cases, a new tyre is cheaper than a trip to A&E.

If you are heading on holiday with a suitcase and stuff in the boot, or even if you aren't, you really do need to be prepared to call roadside assistance to sort out a puncture. The alternative is an old-fashioned rack on the boot lid to hold a proper road wheel.

Richard Gawler

This seems to be an issue with many of the modern cars as manufactures are

looking to reduce weight and costs. Spare wheels are becoming an optional extra

on some new cars, where you need to pay around £700 to have them fitted.

I have a space saver spare on my car but if I had a puncture on a rear wheel, the

wheel won’t go into the space where the spare come from. As Richard said space-

savers are a temporary fix and most advise that you should not go above 50 mph

and travel more that 50 miles. Some new space savers are reported to have better

performance and grip.

Terry Joyce

Do you have a spare wheel?


The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has revealed that nearly 18,000 pedestri-

ans were injured in an accident involving a vehicle in the last full year with analysis

available.

The charity is calling for an even greater focus on pedestrian protection to make

cars safer and raise awareness of the risks.

The figures come from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the IAM,

Britain’s biggest independent road safety charity, asking for details of the most

common pairs of contributory factors reported together by the police attending the

scene of an accident in 2013.

Police can record up to six contributory factors from a list of 77 for each incident to

explain why they think a crash took place but the top two give the most obvious

reasons for the incident. The statistics come from an analysis of the most recent full

year data covering the whole of 2013.

Last month the IAM reported that ‘failure to look properly’ and ‘failure to judge other

person's path or speed’ was the biggest pairing of factors when it came to vehicles

in accidents. And now the pairings of factors listed by police for all pedestrian casu-

alties in accidents can be revealed.

‘Pedestrian failed to look properly’ with ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’

were named as factors in 4,100 casualty accidents, or 23% of the overall total put-

ting them clearly at Number 1.

The remainder of the factor combinations listed are as follows:

2. ‘Pedestrian crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle’ with

‘pedestrian failed to look properly’ - 1,961 casualties (11%)

3. ‘Pedestrian failed to judge vehicle’s path or speed’ with ‘pedestrian careless,

reckless or in a hurry - 1,204 casualties (7%)

4. ‘Pedestrian crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle’ with

‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ - 1,013 casualties (6%)

The IAM Manifesto makes a number of suggestions on how to protect pedestrians,

including making road safety education part of the national curriculum, making

pedestrian safety a bigger factor in vehicle design and a long-term engineering

programme to deliver safer roads in the UK.

Sarah Sillars, IAM chief executive officer, said: “Pedestrian fatalities are rising fast-

er than any other group right now so it is vital that drivers are more sympathetic

and aware of pedestrians when they make their journeys. There is no need to

blame any party when it comes to how to reduce the numbers of people killed and

injured on our roads – all road users need to look out for each other and ensure we

minimise the impact of our own and others unpredictable behaviour."


Chelmsford Advanced Motorists

Library List

DVDs

Drive Smarter, Essential know-how for your driving career (2 copies) By Gem Motoring Assist

Roadcraft, The Police Driver’s Course on Advanced Driving By The Police Foundation

PC CD-ROMs

The Interactive Highway Code HMSO/ Interactive Driving Systems

Hazard Perception Test HMSO/Oasis

BOOKS

Roadcraft TSO Human Aspects of Police Driving Scottish Police College The Tyre Digest (2 copies) Michelin

Driving Abroad Robert Davies

The Official Highway Code Rev. 2007 Edition HMSO

The Official Guide to Accompanying L-Drivers DSA

Sideways to Victory Roger Clark

The Myway Code Ian Vince/Dan Kieran

Paul Ripley’s Expert Driving Daily Telegraph

The Inner Game of Tennis W Timothy Gallwey

Mind Driving Stephen Haley

Older Drivers – Safe or Unsafe? IAM Traffic– Why we drive the way we do Tom Vanderbilt Boreham, A History of the Racing Circuit Bryan Jones & John Frankland

CDs

Awake, Driver Reviver THINK

Advanced Road Craft Bespoke Driving Training

The Driving Test – Your Licence to Drive IAM/Safety on the Move

If you have any books etc from the Library can you please contact Clifford Murira


Letters & emails On all matters relating to motoring and the Chelmsford Group, this newsletter or your experiences in preparing for or taking your test are most welcome.

Dear Terry,

I was amused by Steve Wright's comments in the final paragraph of his Chairman's column in Issue 113 of Forward Vision. Both in the course of my career and the pursuit of sometimes dubious pleasure, I have travelled extensively through the Middle East, Africa and Asia. I believe I may be able to answer his question as to the rationale behind driving at night without lights. On more than one occasion, when I have felt vulnerable being driven in an unlit car, I have challenged the driver to be told something along the lines "I am saving the battery, sir." I am sure there are many other, equally ridiculous justifications, too. Savings the bulbs, perhaps?

I could go on at length about some of the incidents I have witnessed, but I shall just relate a three of the more memorable:

On a four lane highway in Riyadh, in a chauffeur driven Mercedes, driving at 70mph alongside a 4x4 pick-up with three windswept lanner falcons clinging for dear life to a perch on the open back. All that was missing was their leather flying helmets and trailing scarves.

Driving myself in Oman, from Muscat to Sur (during Ramadan), following a police car on the open road at the legal speed limit. After a couple of miles, with the pair of us having been overtaken by several vehicles driving well in excess of the limit (100kph), the policeman wound down the window and signalled for me to overtake. I was unsure as to the lesser offence, speeding or ignoring a policeman's instruc-tions. (Incidentally, one can be fined about £40 for having a dirty vehicle within Mus-cat city limits. Good business for the hand car washes set up in strategic locations.)

Being driven on the island of Sao Tome, a former Portuguese colony off the coast of Gabon, on pot-holed roads that make those in Romania look like motorways. Having nursed his car for most of the journey, the driver suddenly decided to show me its full potential and floored the accelerator. This was followed by a very loud bang and a flapping sound. On a country road, with no street lights, no torch and no moon, it was pitch dark. The driver said that there was a spare wheel, but then confessed he had no jack. I waited at the car while he walked about half a mile to borrow a jack (but not a torch), following which we changed the wheel entirely by feel! Oh, the joys of motoring.

I hope that this might be of interest.

Regards, Paul Carlier


Death of 16-year-old Cassie McCord in 2011 prompted new powers allowing police to strip drivers of their licences if they fail a roadside eye test.

Police across Britain applied 631 times to have licences revoked because drivers failed eye tests – in 609 cases they were successful.

In 2011 Cassie McCord, 16, died from serious head injuries when 87-year-old Colin Horsfall lost control of his vehicle in Colchester, Essex. It later emerged he had failed a police eyesight test days earlier but a legal loophole had meant he was allowed to continue driving. Cassie’s mother, Jackie Rason, campaigned for a change in the law and this eventu-ally led to the introduction of new powers – popularly known as Cassie’s law – which allowed the driver and vehicle licensing authority (DVLA) to revoke licences more quickly.

Jackie Rason said this was “brilliant news” which had potentially saved dozens of lives. “I had no idea until now that it was being used so widely, and it is very satisfy-ing to know it is making a difference,” she said. “That’s more than 600 people who could still be driving, perhaps without even knowing there was a problem with their sight. “You can’t say that in every case they would have killed somebody, but it is very likely to have prevented fatal accidents and other casualties.”

Three days before Cassie’s death, police in Essex had spent two hours trying to persuade Horsfall not to drive again after he was involved in a minor collision and failed an eye test. At the time police had no powers to immediately suspend a licence. He later mounted a kerb, hitting Cassie as she walked with a friend.

Under the new procedure, when an officer feels the safety of other road users would be put at risk if the driver remains on the road, they can ask for the licence be urgently revoked. There are three levels of revocation under the new system, immediate, within 48 hours and postal, whereby the driver will be dealt with via letter sent within 24 hours of notification from the police.

If a banned driver continues to drive, they commit a criminal offence which may lead to their arrest and their vehicle being seized.

When the change was introduced, Sue Harrison, Essex Police’s Assistant Chief Constable, said: “I very much welcome this new procedure. It is a positive step forward and will enable our officers to immediately refer serious cases to the DVLA. This new procedure is a great testament to Jackie’s relentless determination and resilience, which I highly commend.”

Jackie Rason hopes to continue campaigning for mandatory eye tests for all drivers and extra checks for over-70s. “If your car is more than three years old, you have to have an MOT [a mechanical and emissions test] to certify it’s roadworthy,” she said. “Why shouldn’t that be the same for drivers?”

Individual police forces could not say how many times they had applied under the new powers, known as D751E referrals, because such information is only recorded in officers’ notebooks.

From The Guardian

‘Cassie's law’


Chapter 5 continued

In the last edition we covered acceleration sense, following on from that we need to talk about slowing down and stopping. Roadcraft states: You need to be able to slow down or stop smoothly and with your vehicle fully under control. Anticipate the need to slow down or stop early and brake progressively. Being able to accurately estimate the required braking distance at different speeds and in different conditions is central to skilful driving. Never drive so fast that you cannot stop within the distance you can see to be clear on your own side of the road.

As I said above we covered acceleration sense in the last edition, so once you have decided that braking is now required, the question is how much? The questions to ask yourself are: what type of road surface is it and what condition is it in. Is it wet or icy? Is there any oil on the surface? Do you know how much tread is left on your tyres? What are the braking capabilities of your car? You should also take into account the effects of cornering and vehicle balance because depending on whether your car is front wheel drive, rear wheel drive or four wheel drive it will make a difference to how you prepare for hazards.

Some common medications can make you feel drowsy and slow your thinking, check with your doctor if you think that this may be the case. Check out the change to Rule 96 of the Highway Code that has recently ben updated.

When and how firmly you apply brakes depends on your judgement of speed and distance, so consider your initial speed, the road surface, weather conditions and the specific road and traffic condition where you are. If you observation skills are good there should never be a need for emergency braking however you may of heard me mention before we are all human and make mistakes, so in a car with ABS the quickest and shortest way to stop on a dry road is to brake as hard as you can. Remember ABS is designed to allow you to be able to steer while you are braking.

Pull-push or rotational steering? Roadcraft and me prefer the Pull-push method but rotational steering is an option. Whatever method of steering you use it should be smooth. I have been a passenger in a car when the driver only uses one hand to steer and this produces very jerky movements generally throwing passengers about With the power steering of modern cars steering has become fairly easy and often I find with Associates that they tend to use too much steering and have to make more adjustment after a manoeuvre than they really need.

Although I prefer Pull-push steering there is one turn that I have developed a Push-pull technique for. When turning left into the road where I live it is very tight and difficult to turn without going over the central white line. By starting the turn with a smooth push with my right hand from about the 4 o clock to 1 o clock and then with my left hand at the twelve o clock position pull the steering wheel to the left, I can get around smoothly and on my side of the road.

For more on steering read pages114 - 117 of Roadcraft.

From Roadcraft with comments by Terry Joyce

Roadcraft


The picture to the left is the final picture sent in by Paul Carlier.. Below is a picture from Ickworth House sent in by Richard Gawler.

Documents

Forward Vision 114 October 2015