Because many of the young novice drivers killed in car crashes have recently received fantastic driving education, perhaps the current structure of formal driver education should be critically evaluated. To assess the current structure of driver education in South Africa, with specific reference to the driving test;. This brings us to the heart of this study: formal driver education and new novice drivers.
They also ensure that formal driver education is a structured approach to the learning process that can supposedly facilitate and accelerate the acquisition of the necessary knowledge.
Methodology
Sample
A representative from the Department of Transport was interviewed about how formal driving education is being delivered.
Data Analysis
Answers to one question from the different respondents were first brought together to check for similarities of answers. In other words, different themes that emerged from the one question were grouped together under different codes, thus forming different variables.
Driving Schools as Educational Institutions
The K53 Learner Driver's Manual
Driver Education: The Process
Exposure to Different Environments
The problem with COI1CeJt1tndl most driver training in these areas will be addressed in section 3.6 below. Some allow a minimum of less than 5 lessons for those people who think they already know how to drive and only need a licence. This means that a significant number of respondents had experience driving.
Inexperience has been cited by some authors in the literature review as one of the main contributing factors to youth road accidents (Mayhew and Simpson, . 1996). But the results indicate that the licensed drivers who gained some driving experience before attending driving school were involved in almost as many accidents -5 1% - as the drivers who had no experience driving a motor vehicle before they received formal driver training. One must attend formal driver training in South Africa to obtain a driver's license, regardless of whether they already know how to drive.
This is why the 59010 who had already received some prior training still went to driving school even though they did not attend full courses (only 18% did more than 22 lessons as shown in Figure 1 below). A full course is either 20 or 30 lessons depending on the driving school (according to the driving instructors). As can be seen from the above, 3 1% of the respondents received between 5 and 10 driving lessons at the driving school, 28% received between 1 1 and 16 lessons, 1 8% trained in more.
The Driver's Test
This coincided with 88% of respondents who felt their instructors had the expertise to train learner drivers mainly because the instructors were professional and appeared confident during the training. Some reported that their instructors did not respond to questions asked by the student, while one respondent reported having to change instructors as he/she had always looked to other instructors for answers and guidance. They also reported that there are certain bodies in Durban that monitor driving schools.
They also admitted that there are many illegal driving schools in Durban that are not. Some of the management schools approached during this study refused to be interviewed after being asked for their registration documents. As can be seen from figures 3 to 7, it seems that driving schools do teach their learners how to avoid potentially dangerous situations such as what to do if one loses.
Most drivers - although confident in their abilities, tend to be unaware of some of the major hazards that contribute to high death tolls on South African roads. An overwhelming 94% of the current survey's respondents reported that they felt confident that they were good drivers after passing their driving test. As shown in Figure 7, 38% of respondents reported not being told what to do if a vehicle ahead loses control, while 62% reported being given this information.
Driver Competency in South Africa
One of the objectives of the driver fitness project is to ensure an acceptable level of competence for drivers through the improvement of the 11. The goal here was also simple: to develop a "user-friendly practical test to determine the skill abilities of each of the applicable drivers in a real traffic situation. " A major flaw in the learner's testing process that Sitas picked up on in the studio was that the learner's license was too technical and didn't explain why the rules being taught were made.
It has been found that a person can obtain a driving license in a higher vehicle class (such as code Cl for heavy) and then be authorized to drive a motorcycle in a lower class (such as a light motor vehicle requiring code B) without taking into account that the person does not have the skills to do so. An example of the situation is that most driving schools use small trucks whose gross vehicle mass, as declared by the manufacturer, is greater than 3500 kilograms. It was further stated that the reason for obtaining a driving license code C l in this < small 'truck is the fact that the holder of this code (C l) is authorized to drive a car (code B).
There was a strong suggestion that the classification of the various licenses currently in use by South Africa needed an urgent review to avoid a continuation of this trend. This test focuses on the practical operation of the vehicle being inspected and, like the test, does not instil in the learner a sense of responsibility for certain regulations and why it is so important to comply with them.” When the driver is on the road, how will she measure the vehicle's distance.
The researcher goes to driving school
She realized on the day of the test (while waiting to write the test) that they are not exactly the same. It should be mentioned that the researcher had never attempted to drive a motor vehicle before, but on the first day she was put behind the wheel and told to start the car and on the road. The researcher had informed the instructor on the first day that she had never been in the car except as a passenger.
Another danger is that what your instructor doesn't teach may go unnoticed because you don't know that they should be teaching you that particular part, for example, if you don't know that there is something called a three-point turn (because the researcher didn't know) and your instructor doesn't teach you, then you're in danger of taking the test and failing because you weren't taught and you didn't ask about it because you didn't know about it. The researcher found that the driving test process is very complicated. The sequence and procedure must be followed exactly as the police officer testing you wants: for example, before the exam, the researcher was given a ten-minute lesson on pre . During the road test, there is the student and the inspector and no one else.
These included checking the blind spot, checking each and every oncoming road for other cars even if you are not making a turn and performing a 360 degree check when pulling out. A question the researcher asked both the instructors and the inspector was why is it that some of what she was taught was not being practiced by drivers around her. This told the researcher one thing: as soon as she has a license, what she will do depends on what is considered safe by her standards, and she does not have to do all the sequence checks that she was taught and tested on, and it seems that's exactly what other drivers are doing. It must be emphasized that during this entire process at no point did the researcher do so.
Accident Profile
The research shows that of all respondents interviewed (8-24 years old), 47% have been involved in an accident; this number is much higher than that of the respondents interviewed in this study. The same reasons may apply as why 27% of respondents who have been involved in an accident (as shown in Figure 9 above) were involved in a head-on collision. But after some cross-tabulation, it turned out that a majority of respondents who were taught this had been involved in an accident.
However, this does not mean that the type of accident in which they were involved was a direct consequence of the lack of this instruction. But what is worrying is that 48.8% of respondents who have been involved in an accident have learned what to do in such a case. It is understandable that those who have not received this instruction become involved in accidents due to a lack of this knowledge, but that.
From this it can be seen that those respondents who had been driving for 5 years were involved in more accidents (27.9010) compared to those who had been driving for a shorter time. He also found that whatever the mileage, younger drivers were involved in more accidents than older drivers. This does not explain why drivers who had been driving for 2 years were involved in the most accidents (37.2%).
The Keskinen Model: The hierarchical model of driving behaviour
68% of respondents to this current survey reported that their primary purpose for driving is leisure. This means that the novice driver is still trying to master level one of the driving behavior model. 98% of respondents reported that their driving has improved the more time they spend on the road.
Some of the shortcomings include the following: There does not seem to be a specific procedure in place to regulate driving schools. This is also a problem as there seems to be no uniformity in the testing process and no third party quality control. It is crucial that the rules are understood and that the drivers know why they are in place.
What all of the above means is that when new drivers start driving on a regular basis, they may not have been properly taught how to not only be a legal driver, but also how to be a safe driver. During this period, they are not allowed to drive in certain conditions, unless they are under the supervision of an adult. 34;Evidence-based road safety: Driving Standards Agency's Schools Programme. ed) Recent trends in social learning theory.
34; ReckJess Driving and Inexperience: The Biggest Dangers" www.aami.com.au School scope, "License to Drive". http://web2.epnet.com/citation.asp Road use and driver safety: Investigation and assessment Impact of Testing Institutions and Driver Awareness Safety Campaigns". 34; Traditional Driver's Licensing vs. Graduated Driver's License". www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/newdriver/SaveTeens/sect2.html.
Have you received any other training after being to driving school?
Is the car that you nonnaUy your own car?
What is your main purpose for driving a car?
Any additional comments concerning driving schools?
