Parking in gear

[tut]

Shug

Just about to tell Ian to take it off line.

Ian

Dont make any more posts on the Forum, it is a Public one that anybody can read. You can use pm's if you want to talk to anybody personally.

tut

[S111Y TT]

you told me to put it up so i did, i didn't want the abuse for it though. anyway i'll drop it.

[tut]

Even I make mistakes...........

tut

[jj]

If this is to continue it has to be done by pm, so say what you want and then i'll tell you why you are wrong ok!

Wind your neck in, and think before engaging type.

[S111Y TT]

if i'm dropping it why can't you?

[Ron]

In 18 years of driving i have never left a car in gear when parked and i've never had any dramas.

Ron

[Gareth]

Online parenting....it certainly is 2009. Awesome.
Tut is...Cyber Dad

[Rusty]

Even I make mistakes...........

tut

really??? thats news to me i though you only made mistakes on track

[Peter]

Of course if only I actually read the highway code..



Very Lucky, wheel just overhung, nothing touched the ground..


Almost back on topic...

[LittleMorvy]

Sorry been away last couple of days and only just spotted this.

I always teach my pupils to leave the car in gear when parked and to start with the clutch down, in fact it will always be left in gear when they get in as I do this on purpose so they get used to having to check for neutral and press down the clutch before starting but then I was taught to do it this way so its just always the way I have taught all my pupils. I always explain why its best done this way and why its important to check for neutral before starting up. I dont know why other intructors would teach it differently, only reason I can think is that a lot of test centre car parks have nasty walls and this way it avoids any possible bumps if a pupil forgets through nerves on there test, but I'm of the thinking that if it bcomes habit and its all they have ever known then they will generally remember to do it every time anyway.

As for sitting with handbrake on at lights etc, if your going to be stopped for anything more than a few seconds then we would teach to put the handbrake on, anything less then its fne to just use the foot brake.

I guess the biggest problem is that too many instructors out there are purely teaching their pupils to pass the driving test and not what is generally safe for day to day driving, even if that is at the expense of them learning valuable skills because its just easier not to bother and at the end of the day its pass rates that intructors are judged by not the knowledge their pupils have for the future but you dont want to get me started on that

[tut]

Wish that they had had you as their Instructor Morvy, that is a much more sensible and realistic attitude.

Ian and Clare were actually told by their Instructors that it could lead to failure of their test if they did not follow procedures.

tut

[ticktickboom]

if people are taught by instructors, could they technically claim off them for the damage?

[S111Y TT]

If only! No i don't think so, not so long as the methods they are teaching are dvla approved, my driving instructor babbled on about all this stuff one lesson. Morvy will be more aware of it though. I'd imagine if they taught you something incorrect that led to an accident then they are the only ones who could be held accountable, but then how do you prove that they taught you wrong, they won't admit to it will they?
It's a good point though. A lot of what goes wrong is down to common sense, if i had the sense to put it in gear rather than follow habit then i would have been fine. And i actually consider myself to be mildy intelligent.

Ian

[LittleMorvy]

if people are taught by instructors, could they technically claim off them for the damage?

In theory probably yes, I do no of a case in the past where a woman sued her instructor after having an accident when she stopped in the fast lane of a motorway to chang a wheel, apparantly she kept detailed notes of all lessons and was able to prove that her instructor had never specifically said not to do this and the guy ended up losing his house in the end in order to pay compensation, fees etc. It's for this reason that we all have public liability insurance these days.
Not sure how it would be if the instructor was just teaching as advised by the DSA but I can't see any reason why someone would fail their test for parking the car in gear, in fact to be honest you never properly park the car and leave it during a test so the way I'd see it is that that part of teaching should be based around what makes most sense for someone to learn for the many years they will be driving not just a 40 min test.

Unfortunately there are many instructors out there who do not meet the current minimum requirements for acheiving the neccessary grades to pass an instructing test but once someone is on the register it's more difficult to remove them and we also don't yet have any compulsory continuing proffesional development in place either so it can he very difficult to no which intructors are up to date with teaching practices and which aren't.

[David]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8014380.stm