Rod Harrison - Institute of Advanced Motorists

Rod is Chairman and Chief Observer of the Gloucestershire Advanced Motorist Charity.

Rod’s presentation covered an extensive and comprehensive range of advanced motoring techniques with some accompanying interesting statistics. At present, there are 230 drivers over 100 years of age on the road and over a million who over 80. The over 65 age group have 25% of the nation’s drivers. Rod pointed out that drivers over 70 years of age were no more likely to cause accidents that other road users. This must have been some consolation to our own Dr Bob who had just received his tankard.

There are 180 IAM groups in Gloucester with 16 observers. They meet regularly in Churchdown and offer free taster sessions to anyone interested. There is also an on-road assessment for £49 and, when you find yourself with all sorts of issues, you can follow this with classroom lessons at reasonable cost. There is funding from the police commissioner for drivers under 25. Their approach is one of observation rather than instruction, with feedback as appropriate.

They work to the police standard of driving. The course offers ten modules for various situations such as motorway driving, night conditions and dealing with country lanes.

Rod covered the basics of good driving – observation, anticipation, use of all information, stopping (the good old two second rule), positioning, road conditions and speed.  It brought a lot back to me and made me realise my complacency. He talked about the ‘limit of view’ technique for cornering which was something I had not come across before. I have tried since but it takes some getting used to.

He recounted the tale of the driver who had stopped to ask a policeman, near Exeter I think it was, the way to Blackpool, where he needed to be in a couple of hours’ time. No chance, obviously but the PC then discovered that the driver had apparently started off about an hour’s drive from the famous tower!

This was, I found, an informative presentation with a lot to absorb. It brought back to me all the basics I had been taught but rarely thought about when on the road. A good refresher but the best thing, I guess, is to be more involved.

Jeff Dawson