Learner Drivers

It's probably safe to assume that everyone who reads this quaint little website drives a car, or something similar. It would also be safe to assume that you would have been taught how to drive by someone at some stage or another.

Everyone from Dick Johnson to Cranky Grandpa down the street would have been taught to drive. Maybe it was your father, your grandma, or your Drill Sargent while you were in 'Nam. More commonly these days, it is usually a State Certified Driving Instructor, which is probably the best way to go if learning how to drive safely is a priority.

Most commonly, however, it's your parents who strap you into the drivers seat and give you brief, well meaning instructions on how to propel a huge hunk of metal down the road. However, unless your father is Michael Schumacher or your mother Vicky Butler-Henderson, chances are their bad habits on the road are being passed on to the learning driver, which safer roads this does not make.

When I was learning to drive on the road, there wasn't a driving school that I could attend, so I did the best I could, until I could get to the big smoke to attend a Defensive Driving Course, which I think make me a ten times more competent driver on the road. I even spent a brief amount of time working at a Defensive Driving company, delivering the very same courses. If you are thinking that these courses are for reformed drunk drivers or school kids, you'd be wrong. Sure, the fundamentals are there, but once you sink you teeth into it, you will soon realise that these courses are anything but boring.

I first drove a car when I was 9 years old, on the Common Land a few kays outside of Goondiwindi, behind the wheel of Dad's three-on-the-tree Kingswood ute. Ever Sunday after moving the lawns, we'd go for a swim in the river and I'd get to drive there and back (not on the gazetted roads of course!). Further education regarding driving came from my late Pop, who took me out to the forestry behind Woodford to drive his early seventies FJ LandCruiser ute (or Nan's awesome 5 speed Sigma wagon).

These early beginnings probably didn't make me a better driver, and nor did the informal training I received during my L Plate phase allow me to win any driving awards. I can, however, confidently say that the formal driving training I received in the form of the various driving courses over the last eight years most certainly did.

So get out there, book yourself into one of the many accredited Defensive Driving courses around Australia and allow yourself to learn a few things about how to drive competently - who knows, you might even have some fun!

Daniel

A young Daniel and Bingo the dog hanging out in the above mentioned Cruiser ute

None of these courses taught me how to do a skid, or even condoned doing them, but skids are cool, okay??!!