IAM Roadsmart’s car crash on social media

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jcochrane
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Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:53 pm
Location: Surrey-Kent borders and wherever good driving roads are.

Re: IAM Roadsmart’s car crash on social media

Postby jcochrane » Sun May 01, 2022 10:39 am

Horse wrote:
jcochrane wrote:
vanman wrote:
Horse wrote: "driving to the system means you cannot crash."

Where on earth did you get that from?

I think that should read driving to the system means you won't have an accident of your own making. Your position, speed and gear can be correct but if someone wants to hit you they probably will.


I think you're right.

Unfortunately, the actual training has supported the - almost impossible - idea and belief of perfection and so invulnerability. Again, from that era, how often did you hear "best in the World" for UK police training.

Here's an example plucked from the Internet:

" ... trained in advanced driving at Hendon Police Driving School, the best driving school in the World".

Another:

"All Our Assessors Are Retired Police Class One Drivers, All Have Received Advanced-defensive Driver Training By Some Of The Best In The World."

One more:

"trained at the famous Hendon police driving school which has an unrivalled reputation as the best police driving school in the world."

Even if those quotes may reflect the views of retired police drivers, it's views that persist and percolate through driver and rider training.


Those quotes always make me feel uncomfortable. I have no issue with making these claims if they come with clarification that they refer to "police driving" and not "road driving". Advanced police training usually produces very good "road drivers" but certainly not the very best. Police driving and road driving are similar but different styles/systems. In the same way that circuit racing and rallying are similar but different disciplines. Being the best in one does not automatically mean being the best in the other. One area I've noticed is that police trained drivers have a quite limited knowledge of the scope of road driving. For examples items such as heal n toe, left foot braking, hinting, theory and practice of car control, balance etc.

When an ex city traffic officer joined our IAM group he said what he learnt from us was smoothness that went much further than his Hendon Police training.

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Horse
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Re: IAM Roadsmart’s car crash on social media

Postby Horse » Sun May 01, 2022 11:12 am

:D I learnt a step-change in smoothness from you and Gareth :D

Part of the 'best in the world' belief is that it limited development. It might be 'best' in some ways, or a majority of ways - but not necessarily every way.

I talked to someone involved in the 1995 rewrite of Roadcraft, asked whether they had looked at training content in other countries?

"No"

For comparison, that rewritten edition moved to introduce thinking about 'risk', and mental systems. About a decade behind the USA! Pun intended: why reinvent the [winged] wheel?

Being involved with the MSF substantially changed my views and training. That said, I showed US instructors the Kent Riding Plans video, they found it really interesting.
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.


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