ADVANCED DRIVING EUROPE, Advanced Driver Training

I am often asked what is the difference between the average driver and the professional driver and this can be summed up by the ability of the latter to ... CONCENTRATE;     in other words, to focus 100% on what they are doing as a driver, irrespective of where they are driving, under what conditions or, the vehicle they are using.

A recent example comes to mind of how this difference was shown up when I took a driver who has many years'  driving under his belt for a test drive.     During this time, I observed that he (possibly through nervousness) talked too much and while talking,  consistantly observed me, not the busy road ahead and around him.     When coming onto a dual carriageway from a slip road, he hesitated,  braked, accelerated, then braked again - causing  much confusion both to the driver behind him  and to the quick-moving traffic already on the road.          He failed to notice a set of traffic lights, only reacting when the driver ahead of him  braked and stopped on the amber light, thus causing my driver to hit his brakes too aggressively  (had it been wet, we could have hit that driver) resulting in too hard (and too noisy) a stop.

Again, through lack of concentration, my driver missed a destination sign on a roundabout and instead of going round again to pick up his road, panicked,  braked hard and  caused  much irritation to the other drivers surrounding him.    Later, he missed a stop sign - at the bottom of a steep hill -  stopping just in time, with the vehicle half-way across the white line!   

I had noted that this man was often in the wrong gear.  He explained that he was not used to the new car which was a diesel as formerly, he had always driven a petrol engined vehicle.    However, as he has this car for more than a month, I feel that he should have been more familiar with the differences in pulling power/gearing, between the two types of cars.

The two worrying aspects of this driver were:-

                          (a)              his failure to concentrate on the task in hand, and

                         (b)              his lack of ability to think (and react) quickly enough.

The next time you drive your car, be honest with yourself, do any of the above apply to you?   If so, practice concentrating on your driving and on your reactions.    You will soon find yourself becoming a first class driver.

Kind regards, Adrian.