New and Young Driver KSI Explained

New and Young Driver KSI Explained

For many years, young and new drivers have been considered to be the most vulnerable group to get themselves involved in serious and fatal road traffic collisions, not just in the UK, but the world over. As this is backed up statistically, then this point is never in dispute. However, the motoring world is full of myth and one such myth relating to new drivers is that they were only trained to ‘pass the driving test’ and not taught how to actually ‘drive’. A myth that I hope to expose as a misinterpretation of the facts and eventually lay to rest.

Based on these beliefs, changes have been made to the driving test in an attempt to reduce casualty rates. It seems to have had little or no positive effect, as the collision risk presented by young drivers is still significantly higher and out of proportion with the rest of the motoring community. The reason for this is simple; our belief in motoring myth and legend is causing the road safety community to misinterpret statistics and as a result, misguide road safety initiatives for young and new drivers.

Young drivers in the UK today are taught to very high standards, certainly still amongst the best in the world. Irrespective of this, the belief seems to be that a young novice driver, when released onto the road, is not driving to a good standard. Indeed, the statistics clearly show that a new driver’s involvement in collisions is as much as 5 times the amount of some other groups. So it is easy to understand why and how this myth has developed.

What is indoctrinated within the driving instructors’ community is that instructors are entrusted to teach our novice drivers to become safe and responsible motorists and any that instructor teaching a novice just to ‘pass the driving test’ is not worth their salt. Even on the driving test, any number of eventualities may occur that the novice has never encountered before, which only a good quality level of training will enable the novice to evaluate and negotiate safely. To train as an approved driving instructor, you have to take three exams which include: a knowledge test, an advanced driving test of a higher standard than any offered to members of the public and finally a test of instructional ability. The tests are designed to ensure that the instructor has attained the highest standards of motoring knowledge and driving ability and then has the instructional skills to transfer this knowledge to their pupils. It is the instructor’s duty to get his or her pupils as close to that standard of ‘advanced driving’ as possible and provide the pupil with all of the skills and safeguards they need to survive the perils of modern motoring.

Once the pupil is ready for the road, then the examination takes place, where the novice is tested by professional and highly-trained driving examiners on their ability to drive. It is the examiners’ duty to ensure that the novice is fully equipped to deal with demands of modern motoring - a duty not taken lightly as the lives of many people depend on the examiners’ judgement. At the point the novice passed their driving test, they were deemed to be safe and responsible motorists.

The reality for most is that the day they passed their driving test, they would probably have attained a level of motoring that would prove to be the best they would ever be; the safest and closest to an advanced standard that they were ever likely to achieve. However, as we are beginning to understand, this standard doesn’t seem to last and the rapid descent to become amongst the most dangerous group of motorists on the road ensues. So the question is:

What happened that turned our potentially safest group of motorists into our most dangerous?

It is clear that the learning and testing process in not at fault.

The current belief is that when a novice motorist is released onto the road, they immediately present a high risk and only over time, as they gain experience, do they become safer drivers. This is nothing more than myth and misunderstanding. In reality, young and new drivers took to the roads as safe and competent drivers, but for many it is at this point where things start to go catastrophically wrong. Almost immediately they start to under-go a period of a re-education of their driving skills. The main reasons for this change are: choice, peer pressure, influence or just plain bad advice, but they all too often result in life changing and potentially fatal consequences for the young and inexperienced driver. It is the combination of this re-education combined with inexperience that sends their collision risk soaring. Many decide to make very few changes and as a result their collision risk remains low. These motorists are, in effect, doing what was always intended and advised, by adding experience to a good basic standard and solid foundations.

The following chart has been created to demonstrate the changes the novice makes to their driving. The left hand column shows areas tested on the novice driving test, in which the novice has achieved a competent standard. However, the right hand column displays the areas where the novice has re-educated themselves and the primary reason for their dramatic rise in collision risk. 

Voluntary Changes Made to the Novices Driving Standard
Good standard achieved in novice driving test in the following areas	Common changes made to novice test standard
Eyesight	Often deteriorates without being corrected
Highway Code	Level of knowledge not retained and new rules not learned
Controlled Stop	Not practised so driver unaware of vehicle braking ability, however ABS is of great help.
Reverse Left	Often performed in inappropriate places, at speed and with too few observations.
Reverse Right	As reverse left
Reverse Park	Generally performed at appropriate speed, lacking observations.
Turn In Road	Performed in unsuitable locations, at speed and too few observations.
Control
accelerator	Too harsh
clutch	Harsh, covered, coasting
gears	Rushed, inappropriate timing, incorrect selection
footbrake	Harsh, late
parking brake	Button not pressed in before activation
steering	Crossing of hands, hands incorrectly positioned on wheel, steering with one hand for long periods, steering with knees
Move off
safely	Observations weak, blind spot not covered
controlled	At speed, roll back on hills
Mirrors
signalling	Too late, too early or not at all.
change direction	Too late, too early or not at all.
change speed	Too late, too early or not at all.
Signals
necessary	Often never given when needed
correctly	If given usually correct, sometimes forget to cancel.
timed	Too early or late if at all.
Clearance/obstructions	Too fast and too close
Response to signals
traffic signs	Often missed due to weakened observations
road markings	Often missed due to weakened observations
traffic lights	Try to beat lights, amber gambler, totally disregarded
traffic controllers	Develop disregard due to erosion of driver qualities
other road users	Poor interaction with other road users due to poor attitudes, awareness, concentration, impatience.
Use of speed	Excessive, inappropriate
Following distance	Too close
Progress
appropriate speed	Failing to keep up with traffic flow
undue hesitation	Annoys other with hesitation
Junctions
approach speed	Too fast
observation	Weak
turning right	Position
turning left	Position
cutting corners	Often
Judgement
overtaking	Incorrect method - not PSLMSM (Position – Speed – Look – Mirror – Signal – Manoeuvre). Poorly judged, unnecessary
meeting	Lack of courtesy, failing to read actions of other road users.
crossing	Poor judgement, awareness, anticipation
Positioning
normal driving	Not keeping left of centre,
lane discipline	Not driving in centre of lane, not moving back into the left when safe.
Pedestrian crossings	Fail to anticipate pedestrian ready to cross, fail to understand pedestrian right of way.
Position / normal stops	Fail to select safe and appropriate place to stop. Position by kerb. Wheels correctly aligned.
Awareness / planning	Dealing with things as they happen and not thinking ahead.
Ancillary controls	Spend too much time looking at in-car entertainment, Bluetooth, mirrors, phones etc.

The answer was simple, it’s nothing to do with the driving test and everything to do with the changes novices make after they pass. The story is much the same for all of us, as it has always been. The day we passed our test, we started to change the way we drive. The safeguards that the instructor had put in place, to keep the new driver safe on the road, were being removed one by one, and there are hundreds of them. Observations weaken, mirror work reduces, speeds increase, hands cross on the steering wheel, acceleration and breaking harshen and indications lessen, to name but a few. It’s not just the psychomotor skills that suffer, but also the cognitive. As their concentration and awareness reduces, they are less able to react to the hazards surrounding them. As a result, their group collision risk elevates. Their risk didn’t start high, but raises beyond that of most, if not all, other motoring groups because of the adaptions they are making. Eventually, as experience of these new techniques (bad habits) finally kicks in, their collision risk lowers to that of the average driver.

All of these young drivers initially had a very good, very safe motoring technique and a very low collision risk. For whatever reasons, be it outside influence, peer pressure or choice, their level of safety on the road deteriorated. The best standard most young drivers will ever achieve is the one they had the day they passed their test.

Too many young and new drivers are developing a flawed driving technique before adding experience. If young drivers can be persuaded to base their experience on solid foundations, then their collision risk will remain low.

Many of the changes they make can be graded in terms of safety. For instance, crossing hands on a steering wheel is far less a risk than a poor overtaking technique. The mirror signal manoeuvre routine is another technique that often gets dismissed and yet it is so important to sustain our levels of awareness. By encouraging our young motorists to retain the most important of these skills, their collision risk (and therefore the numbers of KSI within this group) would drop like a stone. In my opinion, the most important set of skills include awareness and anticipation, concentration, hazard recognition, overtaking and the MSM routine - all qualities that are in a ‘good drivers’ make-up. These are a mix of psychomotor skills that support the cognitive. Improvements in these areas alone would produce significant reductions in casualty rates.

To achieve significant reductions in young driver casualties, the magic bullet has to be preventing them from making these basic changes to their driving styles, or at least the most important of them. They already have knowledge, they just need to be made aware of the process they are going through, and be persuaded from making the changes they are all too often eager to make.

Before I finish, take a second look at the chart, not only does it represent the direction that our young and new motorists are heading in, it also represents the place where millions of our motorists have already arrived. Maybe this dispels another myth, where most of our motorists consider themselves to be good or excellent drivers, yet they admit that they probably wouldn’t be able to pass the basic driving test, if they needed to do so again.

End