Never be Complacent While Driving, Even in a Test

For most young people, taking the driver’s test marks the time to focus all their learning and practicing… remembering what their driving instructor and parents told them.

That’s why it’s so strange when it all goes wrong when novices take a driving test. The most recent was a Korean women inadvertently made a YouTube hit, by rolling the vehicle within 10 seconds of getting in the car to take the test. The instructor was shouting “brake, brake”, but she couldn’t aim straight, much less know which pedal the brake was!!  (Full story here)

The Aussie Ute – an Icon, but not one for the Unwary Driver

No-one injured when this ute crashed into a living room in Mill Park, Vic, June 2013. (news.com.au)

Taking a test in a high-powered vehicle can have its downsides. One teen boy in 2011 crushed his own mother’s legs (she was outside sitting) as he pulled into the Transport and Main Roads at Zillmere, mistaking the accelerator for the brake. That was at the end of his Driving Test, and nearly the end of her leg, but surgery saved it. It seems a wee bit dangerous doing driving a ute with a bullbar when he was inexperienced.

After reading of six fatalities involving just utes over the past two years, one could say that the false sense of security provided by utes are just that – false. Other tragedies involve an unlicensed teen driving a farm ute just a little way (Ophelia Silcox, 14, died). Another ute driver (65, NSW) ploughed into a motorcyclist, killing him in 2011. He had not held a license since 1970. And he was drunk (0.2). Um, no license means no driving…

Whether you learn to drive in a safe, dual-controlled car with a qualified instructor, and do the test in a similar vehicle, or whether you take out a vehicle built for off-roading with huge bullbars, legally it’s up to you. But remember these stories, and remember to get your license safely.