Pathfinder driving course- a volunteer's thoughts

For the half term week of 26th to 30th October Rotarians have been providing the refreshment services for the Pathfinder driving course.  I was on duty on Wednesday afternoon.  In the past I have attended the course mainly on a Thursday, but I chose a different day so that I would experience a different aspect of the daily lunchtime training. On each day of the course a different aspect of training is undertaken at lunchtime.

On Wednesday there were two aspects of lunchtime training, firstly the classroom session and then a chance to talk to the police and see inside a speed patrol van.

The classroom session started by watching a horrendous video of a crash that occurred on the A1 near Durham a few years ago.  The crash involved slowing traffic and a lorry careering into the back of the traffic with the resultant death of three people.  As part of the investigations it transpired that at the time of the crash the lorry driver was using his mobile phone.  It was thought that if the driver had not been using his mobile phone he would have chance to react and the crash might not have happened.  The driver has received an 8 year prison sentence.

After watching the video the students and adults were asked to comment on what they had seen and the consequences of it.  Initially the students in particular were too shocked to comment a lot, but gradually they started to participate and it became apparent that the consequences of the crash were massive.  The range of people effected were the families who had lost loved ones, the family of the driver, the police and other emergency services, carriageway repair teams, insurers, legal services, the courts, the prison services and of course everyone who was delayed on the road by the crash, along with others.

The real message of this was the consequences of using mobile phones and other distractions whilst driving can be massive.  Hopefully this message will get to all those who were present at the presentation.

The second part was the chance to talk to the police and look inside a speed monitoring van.  The van was one of 13 that the North Yorkshire police operate.  The van contains a variety of cameras ranging from the main speed camera, to side cameras, a roof mounted pan tilt and zoom camera and ANPR cameras.  A vehicle had been set up at the far end of the runway, approximately 450m away and with the camera the numberplate could be read clearly and if there had been occupants of the car they could be clearly seen and if they had been using a hand held phone or not wearing a seat belt that would have been evident – incredible at that instance.

Sometimes when the van is parked it is just using its ANPR cameras and via those they can check that a vehicle is taxed, insured, has a valid MOT where required and not a vehicle that is of interest to the police.  The van operator said that the fastest speeding that he had recorded was 135 mph, a frightening thought.  He also said that the fastest one recorded in North Yorkshire was 150 mph and one that occasion the speed van advised police control about the incident and they were able to apprehend the vehicle down the road and found that the four occupants of the car were persons of interest to them.

The chance to see in the police speed van and to talk to the police will hopefully have helped to reinforce the awareness of speed limits and complying with those.

The Pathfinder driving course covers many aspects of driving and clearly helps to significantly improve the standard of young drivers and resultant road safety, it is this that makes supporting the course is a very worthwhile Rotary activity.  Also  as older drivers it is important to be occasionally reminded of some of these aspects of driving safely.

David Fotheringham