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An eight-hour drive that may prove a lifesaver
David Passey reports on a course that puts you in control of your car, your life, and the lives of others.
Peter Finlay drives down the hill at Oran Park on a wet road, deliberately locks the front wheels of his car, turns the wheels one way and momentarily releases some brake pressure. He is able to swerve to miss a simulated child. Nearby the crowd of students observe with silent approval. Only minutes before, each one of them had driven at 70km/h down the same stretch of road, hit the brakes, and recorded a simulated tragic result.
Back at the drawing board, Peter a long-time defensive driving instructor is talking these same trainees through the consequences of their unskilled efforts. Not only had they wiped out an innocent life but they might easily have killed themselves, ending up in a head-on smash as they snaked across the road.
More importantly, Finlay is talking avoidance - about how drivers can control their cars through the critical moments. “The problem is panic”, he says. “That desperate time when adrenalin shoots through your body and you freeze. But by knowing yourself and your car, what works and what doesn’t, and by keeping cool, you can maximise your chances of keeping control”.
Staying alive is the dominant message at the Peter Finlay Defensive Driving School. Year after year he watches the carnage on Australian roads, and estimates that most accidents are preventable. His verdict: few drivers on Australian roads have more than the basic skills needed to drive safely.
“What people have to recognise is that, for the vast majority, driving a car on the roads is the most dangerous thing they will do in their lifetime. A metre to the left or right, a lapse of concentration or an angry moment and, bang you’re dead. The complacency with which Australians take towards cars is frightening”, he says.
Back on the track, the trainees are ready to try again to manoeuvre their cars away from the simulated child. Finlay has shown them that reaction times are critical, that issues such as tyre condition and the balance of the car affect stopping distance, and that road conditions must be correctly read.
Above all, he has dispelled that myth held by many drivers in a crisis: when in doubt the driver should hit the brakes as hard as they can. In fact, Finlay was able to stop his car in the exercise with pressure equivalent to that which he could apply with his fingertips! The message: light, progressive braking can deliver steering and control over skidding and stop the car significantly shorter.
Sure enough, the trainee drivers were able to stop as much as 25 metres earlier than before. They kept on course in the wet, withdrew from slides and, most times, missed the simulated child. Many wondered out loud why such training was not mandatory before people could be granted a full licence.
Attitude, says Finlay, is one of the biggest impediments to safe driving. The impatient and angry driver, the complacent driver who thinks himself invincible, the driver who thinks she is above the law, and the driver who carries the sense of inevitability—that “the Lord will provide and I will arrive”, as Finlay puts it. “In fact, the person who presents the greatest risk is yourself. Defensive driving is about allowing you to cope with all the deficiencies in the driving system, the deficiencies in other drivers, the hazards of the environment, vehicle failures and weaknesses, and your own skills and attitudes.”
Alcohol and speed remain the biggest killers, he says. To throw off the cynics, he lays down the statistics: driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.05% doubles a driver’s reaction time, driving at the former SW BAC of 0.08% doubles that reaction time again; a car travelling at 120km/h takes four times longer to stop than a car at 60km/h.
Finlay’s defensive driving course has evolved over 25 years from the original Peter Wherett school. The intensive, eight-hour course examines the psychology of driving, attitudes, the theory of defensive driving, knowledge of the law and vehicle dynamics and driving skills.
It includes three hours of theory, about four hours practical and half an hour of demonstrations. The drivers spend time in their car with an instructor and each is given a comprehensive evaluation after the course.
Each driver is trained in the practical and theory of three crisis situations:
- straight-line braking in varying conditions.
- breaking through a corner in varying conditions.
- combination braking, swerving and acceleration avoidance exercise.
At a cost of $275 (incl GST) per person, the fee is a worthwhile investment in one’s future. One minor smash is likely to inflict much more than $250 worth of damage on a car, and a major crash could cost you your life!
Extract from The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper