Is the driving test out of date?

[Horse]

I confess it is news to me that they only work with a frontal collision. Does this mean that they don't deploy when the car is shunted from the rear? What about side collisions (T-boning)? I'd be grateful for a definitive reference or two as I can't readily find one via search engine.

No links or refs, I'm afraid.

However, there are so many airbags in cars that it would be horrendous if they all went off!

Driver & passenger wheel / dash.
A Pillar
Side impact
Rear passenger
Even seatbelt bags . . .

Have that lot go off and I doubt your eardrums would survive the pressure change . . .

[fungus]

Which, interestingly enough, is the subject of a two-page article in the latest DIA 'Driving' magazine, on developing the self-awareness of learners, and avoiding - particularly with young male drivers - the 'anti' feelings that can come from being 'told what to do'.

Which is why I never tell pupils who have just passed their test not to speed, just simply that I do not want to see them back in my car on a provisional licence.

[ROG]

Being told what to do..... isn't that a subject covered in Mind Driving....

[Horse]

During my twenty two years at Hendon I travelled over a million instructional miles, all over the country, by day and night, in all weather conditions. Driving and instructing in a selection of motor cars
I have driven and trained at speeds of more than twice the National Speed Limit. Yet during that time I never had a collision, never caused one, never left the road, never had a lock up or even activated the ABS. I repeat; a million miles of safe, collision free driving, much of it, well above the National Speed Limit. I owe that achievement to Roadcraft and pull-push method of steering.

What I'm about to post could easily be read as critical; it's not. Try to keep that in mind

1. I wonder if '1 million miles' skews the accident figures for the rest of the fleet and staff?

2. Driving at that standard is different from training other drivers to that standard. I wonder how 'effective' other drivers were who'd been through the training regime at that time? Is Chris' level of achievement truly 'transferable'? [See '1'] If not, why not?

3. I don't think he totally owes it to Roadcraft; there are plenty of drivers and riders who 'know' Roadcraft but don't survive so well (and I'm presuming he had considerable operational driving experience before moving to the Peel Centre). There is something 'within' him that made a difference. Is that 'transferable'?

[Horse]

Being told what to do..... isn't that a subject covered in Mind Driving....

Probably It's a year or so (when was it published) since I've read it.

There is considerable overlap between a number of different 'methods' or 'styles'.

For example:
- Some of the content is similar to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's old 'Experienced RiderCourse' syllabus.
- There's work ongoing within the EU by CIECA on coaching, and there's their risk awareness database.
- NLP has considerable overlap with SJW's coaching formats.

[martine]

I confess it is news to me that they only work with a frontal collision. Does this mean that they don't deploy when the car is shunted from the rear? What about side collisions (T-boning)? I'd be grateful for a definitive reference or two as I can't readily find one via search engine.

The following describes how they work and under what conditions (in general terms)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbag