Fastest driving test failure in the UK? 2 minutes before the test started.When Mr J. Beene signalled with his right hand and pulled out on to the road on June 1, 1935, he would have had an inkling that he was about to make motoring history.
After reversing around a corner, coming to an emergency stop without stalling his engine, turning left and correctly answering questions from the Highway Code, he became the first person in the country to pass his driving test.
But what this pioneer of the petrol age could scarcely have imagined was that 94 million tests and 75 years later, the driving test — honed, polished and refined as it may be — remains pretty much as it was from the outset.
While the world has changed around it, the test itself has remained a constant; an immovable rite of passage and source of freedom, angst and improved road safety.
Mike Penning, the Road Safety Minister, paused yesterday to salute the exam as its anniversary approaches. “The driving test is not just a rite of passage, it has helped save thousands of lives on our roads,” he said.
“High standards of driver training and assessment are an essential contribution to helping Britain’s roads remain among the safest in the world.”
Fatalities were at their highest in 1934 before the introduction of the test and the reimposition of speed limits.
With only 2.4 million vehicles on the roads, of which 1.5 million were cars, 7,343 people were killed in Britain. By 2008 the number of cars had risen to 34 million but the number of deaths had fallen to 2,538.
Technology, including advanced braking systems, radial tyres and compulsory seatbelts, played its part but so has mandatory testing.
“It has had a massive impact,” said Ashley Bateman, assistant chief driving examiner at the Driving Standards Agency. “In a way it has remained unchanged. The actual main structure [of the test] had some similarity, as it does now.”
Soon after becoming Transport Minister in 1934, Leslie Hore-Belisha laid down three pillars of road safety that endure to this day.
The Road Traffic Act 1930 had abolished speed limits and motorists enjoyed a brief era of unrestricted travel. But road deaths surged, especially among pedestrians in built-up areas. As he crossed Camden High Street, North London, in 1934, Mr Hore-Belisha had a near miss with a speeding motorist and that same year introduced the 30mph limit that still exists in most urban areas.
His next act, along with the beacon that bears his name, was to introduce the driving test — first as a voluntary scheme but after three months as a legal requirement for any new driver.
“Driving is an art in which those who are engaged should, in the interest of their own and of the public’s safety, take the greatest pains to make them proficient,” he said.
The test was suspended during the Second World War and the Suez Crisis in 1956, when examiners were put in charge of fuel rationing. But since 1957 it has continued uninterrupted.
Hand signals were dropped from the test in 1975. A reverse parking manoeuvre was added in the 1990s to take account of dwindling road space. A separate theory test was introduced in 1996.
In 2002 a hazard perception test was added and in 2008 an ecosafe section taught pupils how to conserve fuel. In April instructors were encouraged to observe their pupils’ tests, and in October a new, independent driving assessment will be introduced where learners will be left to follow road signs.
The test has become longer and more people now fail. In 1935 63 per cent of the 246,000 drivers passed; by 2004 the rate had fallen to 43 per cent of the 1,399,115 who took it.
Mr Bateman says that this is because there is far more traffic rather than the test itself having become more complex. “It is to do with the volumes of traffic. There was not as much to go wrong in the past,” he said.
Anyone taking the test on Tuesday will perform the same manoeuvres as Mr Beene, bar the hand signal.
Hard driven
• Maureen Rees, a Welsh cleaner, became a household name in 1997 after appearing on Driving School on BBC One. More than 12 million people tuned in each week to watch her shout abuse at her husband Dave, a driving instructor, as she bunny-hopped their Lada “Betsy” along the road. Having failed her test multiple times off screen, she made two more unsuccessful attempts during filming.
She eventually passed in an automatic. Maureen’s single, a cover of Driving in my Car by Madness, reached No 50 in the UK singles chart and the BBC screened a special episode in her honour called The Making of Maureen.
She has since taken racing car lessons and flying lessons, and passed her test in a manual car. She still drives a Lada.
• In February last year a South Korean saleswoman named Cha failed her test for the 771st time. Officials witheld the full name of the 68-year-old grandmother to protect her from ridicule.
Michelle Kelly, 31, failed her test for the third time in Manchester after she sprayed a man at a bus stop with water. Her examiner said that she should have stopped at the scene of the “accident”.
• Barry Shiels, of Carnhill, Northern Ireland, was fined £300 for assaulting an examiner who failed him for the second time in February 2009.
• The “keep failing driving test club” on the netmums website provides refuge for kindred spirits: “Am fine when in hubbies car, its just test day gets the better of me,” said Katrina O after her fourth failed attempt.
“I crashed the car into some bushes! I cried all the way back to the test centre and now my theory test certificate has ran out for the second time!” said Louise after her third failed test.
• Drivers are most likely to pass in Stonehaven, which has a 68.4 per cent pass rate. They are least likely to pass in Bradford Heaton (29 per cent).
• The most common causes of failure are: 1. Junction observation 2. Use of mirrors 3. Reversing 4. Moving away safely 5. Junctions, turning right and roundabouts.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/drivin ... 138594.ece
Learner driver and instructor pull into driving centre, instructor goes into the office and after a long wait, emerges with the examiner.
Girl sitting test beeps the horn to indicate where the car is.
Examiner approaches car, signals for the girl to wind down the window, and says: "It's illegal to use a horn while stationary," and gives her the fail slip.
I passed first time, surprisingly. Mind you I had been driving totally illegally for six years before I sat the test.
