Last Saturday morning I spent a fairly dull 4 hours with 24 other offenders on a Driver Awareness Course being lectured on the numerous dangers of speed and the wonderful benefits of slow speed.
I was on the course because a few weeks ago I received an unexpected letter from the Metropolitan Police. Upon opening it, I was very alarmed to discover it began with "Notice of Intended Prosecution"! However, as I read further on, it turned out I had been caught speeding (70mph in a 60mph zone along where the M40 becomes the A40) and the letter was merely a formal notice that I was going to be fined and not notice of an impending court appointment.
Interestingly, the letter required me to confirm I was, in fact, the driver at the time of the incident, and (some might say generously) allowed me to blame someone else if I wasn't. I decided against shifting the responsibility to my wife and posted the confirmation and waited for the response which arrived a few days later detailing my punishment.
The penalty proposed was multiple choice. I could either take 3 points on my driving licence along with a fine, or, because it was my first time being caught, take the option of a Driver Awareness Course. Points affect insurance premiums in the upward direction, so it was a no-brainer to go for the Driver Awareness Course!
I logged onto the booking site and having found a course that fit my schedule, I had to pay £91 to book my place on a Saturday morning session. I was expecting to have to pay for the course, but I was still somewhat peeved about the principle of having to pay to attend a course for naughty people.
On the Saturday, I drove 45 miles to the Hilton hotel in Luton, arriving at 7:45am to find that I had to pay to use the hotel car park. I was even more disappointed after registration to discover that the only refreshment provided was water. No courtesy snacks, no tea and no coffee for a 4 hour course with a short break after 2 hours. Of course, the hotel was only too happy to fill in this void and kindly offer their food and drink in exchange for a premium amount of money.
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| Course booklet |
I was on the course because a few weeks ago I received an unexpected letter from the Metropolitan Police. Upon opening it, I was very alarmed to discover it began with "Notice of Intended Prosecution"! However, as I read further on, it turned out I had been caught speeding (70mph in a 60mph zone along where the M40 becomes the A40) and the letter was merely a formal notice that I was going to be fined and not notice of an impending court appointment.
Interestingly, the letter required me to confirm I was, in fact, the driver at the time of the incident, and (some might say generously) allowed me to blame someone else if I wasn't. I decided against shifting the responsibility to my wife and posted the confirmation and waited for the response which arrived a few days later detailing my punishment.
The penalty proposed was multiple choice. I could either take 3 points on my driving licence along with a fine, or, because it was my first time being caught, take the option of a Driver Awareness Course. Points affect insurance premiums in the upward direction, so it was a no-brainer to go for the Driver Awareness Course!
I logged onto the booking site and having found a course that fit my schedule, I had to pay £91 to book my place on a Saturday morning session. I was expecting to have to pay for the course, but I was still somewhat peeved about the principle of having to pay to attend a course for naughty people.
On the Saturday, I drove 45 miles to the Hilton hotel in Luton, arriving at 7:45am to find that I had to pay to use the hotel car park. I was even more disappointed after registration to discover that the only refreshment provided was water. No courtesy snacks, no tea and no coffee for a 4 hour course with a short break after 2 hours. Of course, the hotel was only too happy to fill in this void and kindly offer their food and drink in exchange for a premium amount of money.
The instructors were pleasant enough but also were very much aware that all of the attendees were only there under duress and that with no pass/fail requirement they'd be lucky to have our full attention. They were used to it though and were comfortable with a minimal amount of audience participation.
I was expecting 4 hours of car crash videos but thankfully this wasn't the case. In fact, there were no crash videos at all. Instead, we went through the effects of speeding on braking distances and impact speeds for collisions. There were some interesting and surprising figures thrown at us. For example, at 32 mph (2mph over the speed limit), a car's impact speed (i.e. its speed at the point when the same car travelling at 30mph would have stopped) would be 11mph. This was effectively demonstrated by a video where a driver drove at different speeds at a life-size poster of a woman called Anna, running her over several times at various speeds all the way to 100mph!
The facilitators also went through various statistics on casualties and collisions and in groups we discussed the consequences of traffic accidents for victims, drivers and related families (loss of mobility, income, health, relationships, grief, guilt etc) . We also talked about the benefits of driving slowly and the reasons people speed (lateness, going downhill, tiredness, thrillseeking) and why these reasons are inconsequential and not valid. Throughout the day, they also dropped in little anecdotes about people who had been involved in an accident and suffered as a result. My guess is that guilt is the preferred method of speed limit enforcement.
I did learn a few things about speed limits: in particular that if there's a set of three or more street lights then unless otherwise specified, the urban speed limit of 30mph will apply.
Also that having two lanes on your side of the road doesn't necessarily mean its a dual carriageway (70mph limit). It turns out it's only a dual carriageway if there's a barrier or other separation between lanes in opposing directions. If you can roll a tennis ball on the ground from one side to the other then it's a single carriageway (60mph).
I was expecting 4 hours of car crash videos but thankfully this wasn't the case. In fact, there were no crash videos at all. Instead, we went through the effects of speeding on braking distances and impact speeds for collisions. There were some interesting and surprising figures thrown at us. For example, at 32 mph (2mph over the speed limit), a car's impact speed (i.e. its speed at the point when the same car travelling at 30mph would have stopped) would be 11mph. This was effectively demonstrated by a video where a driver drove at different speeds at a life-size poster of a woman called Anna, running her over several times at various speeds all the way to 100mph!
The facilitators also went through various statistics on casualties and collisions and in groups we discussed the consequences of traffic accidents for victims, drivers and related families (loss of mobility, income, health, relationships, grief, guilt etc) . We also talked about the benefits of driving slowly and the reasons people speed (lateness, going downhill, tiredness, thrillseeking) and why these reasons are inconsequential and not valid. Throughout the day, they also dropped in little anecdotes about people who had been involved in an accident and suffered as a result. My guess is that guilt is the preferred method of speed limit enforcement.
I did learn a few things about speed limits: in particular that if there's a set of three or more street lights then unless otherwise specified, the urban speed limit of 30mph will apply.
Also that having two lanes on your side of the road doesn't necessarily mean its a dual carriageway (70mph limit). It turns out it's only a dual carriageway if there's a barrier or other separation between lanes in opposing directions. If you can roll a tennis ball on the ground from one side to the other then it's a single carriageway (60mph).
We finished half an hour early thanks to no one asking any questions and upon being dismissed (and requested that we don't get caught speeding for the next half an hour - when the course was meant to end) we all quietly sidled away to our cars and departed, somewhat chastened and eager to get back to our lives.
All in all, I'd say there were a handful of interesting things that I learned, but for the most part it was a reminder of things I already knew (or should have known from the driving theory test). It was worthwhile being reminded as I have been more conscious of my speed since the course so I am less likely to speed but I am still irritated I got caught in the first place.
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