It is a sad fact that young males between the ages of 17 and 20 years of age are ten times more likely to be killed or injured than their older counterparts, so what can we do about it? In spite of the individual attention and training that they will have received from one the team qualified instructors at the Bill Plant School of Motoring, once they have successfully passed their two part driving test they are out of the Driving School’s hands.

Once a new driver is qualified they should seriously consider enrolling on a pass plus course which will not just make them better drivers, but will in most cases qualify them for lower insurance premiums, itself a tremendous bonus. Government is considering legislation to reform the driving test and safety organisations such as “Brake” advocate a provisional period after the test restricting the new driver to day time driving and not carrying passengers. Until reform is brought in the statistics will unfortunately continue.

It’s that time of year again when hundreds of families will soon be setting off to enjoy a week’s UK holiday break. But before the camping, theme parks and beach picnics can begin you need to get in the car and travel for hours to get there. Of course we all know that’s when the real fun can begin, you have heard it many times and we bet that you will have said it yourself at some time, “Are we there yet?”

The best tip is to keep them occupied because bored kids tend to make more noise, distracting the driver. Take with you some things to occupy the children such as pencils or books, electronic games are great if the volume is muted! Play some games such as spotting number plates or the first to spot a certain colour of car, but importantly take frequent breaks, it is recommended that this should be around every two hours.

Try to ensure that the temperature is kept down, if you have air conditioning this is great, children should be strapped in and make sure that you have the child locks engaged, you do not want the door flying open on a motorway! Above all drive safely and enjoy your well deserved holiday.

When you get ready to go out at night and need to drive, you should always make sure that both you and your car are prepared for the outing.  You need to make sure that you will be able to see adequately to drive and you may find that as you age you may need night time driving glasses.   Always allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness if you leave a brightly-lit building.  And it’s a good idea to make sure your windshield is clear on the inside of your car and the outside to cut any glare that may occur from passing vehicles in the other lane. 

The biggest priority of a night time driver is to make sure the lights on his or her car work properly.  Headlights, taillights, parking lights and turn signals should all be in good working condition.  Make sure that the headlights work in both positions – main beam and dip.  Use the proper settings on your lights when driving to help you see better.  Dimly lit or dark roads with little traffic can be traversed using your high beams.  When driving in town or on roads that are lit, use the dipped setting.  Always remember to dim your lights when on the bright setting to oncoming traffic so as not to blind the other motorists.

If you feel yourself getting tired while you are driving at night, stop the vehicle, get out, and take a break.  Fatigue can cause you to fall asleep at the wheel and if this happens you could get involved in an accident, potentially a fatal one.

With insurance companies getting tougher with drivers who have points on their licence from hand-held mobile phone offences has to be an excellent development. The insurer Allianz believes that you are a more dangerous driver if you have points from using a hand held ‘phone than for a routine speeding offence, described by them as a “dangerous and needless act”.

If you are one of those who persist with this dangerous practice, you can expect fine, points on their licence, in addition to an increase in the insurance premium when you renew.  Amazingly 185,000 drivers were caught using hand held phones in 2007 but in spite of the increase in the penalties now a doubled fine, from £30 to £60, with three penalty points, the offence continues. There has never been a better time to invest in a Bluetooth hands-free kit, which are widely available at less than £30 which is less than half the cost of the fine if you are caught.

Remember that hands free conversations are still a distraction and you should always tell callers that you are driving, and find somewhere legal, safe and convenient to pull over. Drive safely.

What is not in doubt is that modern cars are structurally far superior to models widely available in years previously, but the width of the pillars to achieve this has grown, in particular the one that divides the windscreen and the side windows, known as the “A” pillar, the downside is that his pillar obstructs the vision of thousands of drivers.

Your Bill Plant qualified driving instructor will have made you aware of the potential restriction the “A” pillar may cause in your ability to scan the road ahead. As a reminder to all drivers you should make sure that nothing is hidden from view by the pillar before making a manoeuvre as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are easy to “lose” in the space behind this. Make sure you take time to look around the pillar, not just take a quick “snap-shot” look which could allow a cyclist to be hidden from view.

Never forget that good all round vision is essential to safe driving, vital in fact and remember that as a driver of a motor vehicle, the onus is on you to ensure that nothing is there.

Being able to control your car while driving and avoiding potential traffic hazards is the key to having a long, safe, driving career.  There is a way to control your vehicle and there are key elements that everyone should be aware of and always keep in the back of their mind when driving.  If you can incorporate this into your daily driving, you will be able to avoid accidents, safely navigate through treacherous terrain and inclement weather, and ensure your safety and the safety of anyone travelling with you.

When you drive you want to read the road continuously.  Pay attention to the road signs, the white lines on the road surface and any other warning signs that motorists may inadvertently leave you, such as skid marks or debris.  Always make sure that you leave enough room between yourself and other drivers so that you can stop in plenty of time to avoid colliding with them.  Also, try to always have an alternative escape route planned if stopping is not an option.

Speeds are constantly increasing on the roadways and many people will speed when they shouldn’t.  Higher speeds should be limited to where the traffic conditions, visibility, and law permit it and nowhere else.  Space is once again a factor and it is recommended that while travelling at 70 MPH you need to have a stopping distance that is four times more than if you were travelling at 30 MPH.  Always make sure that your brakes are in good working condition before leaving your home.  Utilize down gear shifting to slow down when you can to avoid excess wear and tear on your vehicle.

The chief medical officer Liam Donaldson has called for teenage drivers to be banned from drinking any alcohol at all when taking to the wheel of a motor vehicle, a zero limit. Even when they have consumed within the present limit the teenager is twice as likely as an older driver to be involved in an accident.

Many younger drivers are asking why they should be treated differently to older drivers and we believe that the answer is quite simple. Not only are older drivers more careful due to their experience, but they are much more tolerant to alcohol than a younger person.

At Bill Plant we train our learner drivers to the highest standard at all our UK wide driving schools, and as part of our tuition we have always considered that driving a motor vehicle and alcohol are two things that do not mix, Mr Donaldson’s views may be controversial, but they could save lives.

Most drivers tend to be reactive drivers when they first learn to drive.  New drivers tend to wait and see what the other drivers on the road are going to do.  As you gain experience driving, your skills start to reflect your personality and attitude.  You start to watch out for hazards sooner the more you drive and you begin to drive proactively.  This means you try to control your part of the situation by adjusting your speed and moving out of the road if there is room.  As long as no one is tailgating you, you do not have to worry about being rear-ended.  If you make good use of your horn, headlights, and brake lights, you can help avoid an accident.

If you need to brake to come to a stop and the road is dry and even, braking very hard is appropriate.  When the weather is bad – snowy, rainy, and icy – a proactive driver will use various driving techniques to slow down and stop their vehicle.  Threshold braking requires the driver to gently brake without excess pressure.  Cadence braking is the method of tapping the brake, pumping it to slow down. 

Sometimes you will need to turn your vehicle around in order to avoid the road hazard in front of you.  If you are on a two-lane road you will need to perform a two-point turn with an emergency stop.  If the road is larger, you can safely try to perform a U-turn.  If you need to back up quickly, make sure there is not traffic behind you. 

Every day in the UK, 23 young people, under the age of 25, are killed or seriously injured in vehicles and it is a fact that most of these collisions are caused not by the vehicle, the road, or the conditions, but by bad driving, which is the biggest single killer of young people In the UK.

That there are some young tearaways on our roads is not in dispute and for them there is absolutely no excuse, fortunately most young drivers are not like that most want to be good safe drivers. The easiest way to achieve this is to enroll on a Bill Plant pass plus advanced driving course which covers all types of driving conditions and gives you the added confidence you will almost certainly need following on from your successful driving test. In addition to making the newly qualified driver safer, they will benefit from reduced insurance premiums which can only be a good thing. Join the thousands of successful Bill Plant driving school students and you can be a good and safe driver too.

Summer time is when the number of cyclist increase due to road events and we all prefer to use a cycle when it is not raining! Also due to the rise in petrol costs we are seeing more cyclists on the road with very differing levels of skill and experience. Due to this drivers of motor vehicles need to take extra care to judge their speed, as well as the road and weather conditions, from the new cyclist’s point of view. Some cyclists, particularly younger ones, have never driven a car, and so don’t recognise the problems that they can cause car drivers.

Cyclist do not have a steel cage around them like the motorist, passing too close can be disconcerting. In traffic, make sure that you don’t cut up a cyclist who is about to pass you on the near side, try not to cut across a cyclist when you need to turn left at a junction and wait behind the cyclist until the cyclist has either turned left or passed the junction. All of this and much more may seem to be common sense, which it is, and you will find reference to safe driving and cyclist in the Online Highway Code at the site of the Bill Plant Driving School.