Hi, this is my fifth article on Bob Morton’s, “See it”, “Say it”, “Suss it” and “Sort it” system of driver training.
In this article I was going to focus on the consequences of a pupil’s actions with the “Suss it” part of the system.
The DVSA use a system called deviation from desired outcome when deciding to mark a driving fault on a practical test. When we are teaching our pupils to drive, we are comparing it to the way we drive and any deviation from this should be noted. It’s essentially important that our own standards of driving are to a high standard to begin with, so we are encouraging our students to meet or even better to exceed of our own high standards of driving (making our pupils better than us!).
When a student does something or better still you anticipate something that is going to deviate from what we would do, we need to way up the risk of this.
This is how examiners weight up faults to help explain-
1/ No Fault- there is no risk in what your pupil as done. For instance, forgot to put it 1st gear when moving off from safe parking position and no other road user is affected. Your pupil will probably notice this when they can’t get the biting point.
2/ Non-Noteworthy Fault- there is a deviation, however what they have done, hasn’t caused any risk to themselves or any other road user. For example, straight lining a very quiet roundabout, where no other road users are present.
3/ Fault- Driver Error- This is where a driver as made a driver fault where some risk can be caused. For example, signalling too late when leaving a roundabout, would cause other road users to wait at the next entrance, a little longer than necessary. Or not checking the blind spot when driving off, but no other road user is affected in this instance but could have been if they were present.
4/ Serious Driver Error-This is where a driver as caused something that can cause high risk. For instance, driving thro a red traffic light (a law breach) or changing lanes on a roundabout or dual carriageway without doing the necessary observations, both have major consequences if repeated and as a potential for a serious collision.
5/ Dangerous Driver Error- This is where a driver causes actual danger through their actions. This where you have had to take either verbal or physical action to prevent a collision from occurring.
Ok, why do we need to know these different levels of risk. Well, we need to respond to it by either avoiding it in the first place by using the “Say it” part of the system, especially if the fault is going to be a serious or a dangerous driver error.
If the driver fault is repeated, serious or dangerous when we have to “Sort it” by changing the plan or changing the level of support.
We shouldn’t be allowing our pupils to constantly repeat the same errors, as if we do, they are harder to change later once they are formed. A bit like quick drying cement, once it’s formed it’s harder to crack! Hence the importance of the “See it” part of the system.
Another important aspect of driver training is that the pupil fully understands what as happens and the potential risk it can or could cause to other road users. This will help them to correct this in future situations and hopefully change their behaviour.