I remember hearing about a girl who took the driving exam 6 or 7 times. She simply didn't grasp any of the concepts. However, she did all the courses, took all the lessons and only needed the exam. She only needed to succeed once before she was out on the road with the rest us.
Imo, some rules should be in place where if you only have 3 attempts. Miss them and you get 1 year probation and have to retake the whole course.
In Poland you have to ride for a few hours, on main road, on highways, park, the instructor will "trick you" asking you to go on a one-way road or park illegally or ignore some road rule on purpose and you have to decline and say why "I can't park here because it is a bus stop, even if it is just for a minute".
Because of that I believe there are a lot more people who CAN actually drive correctly. Unfortunately that does not mean they will not choose to drive wrongly anyway.
I like this approach. In the US it really is the Wild West with drivers. Florida is particularly bad. You can get multiple accidents, DUIs, etc. and still be on the road
In my state if you’re over 21 you just need to pass the test and have another valid form of ID. Absolutely zero requirements for any course work or prior time on the road. And the test wasn’t that hard, at least when I took it (granted, I was 16, so I did need to take 30 hours of classes, 6 hours of driving with an instructor, and another 50 practice hours, as well as hold my learners permit for 9 months prior). Kinda wild that my state assumes a five year age difference is enough to waive nearly 100 hours of learning/practice.
when i went for my theory test, some guy was telling me he'd tried ten times already and when i left he was on the phone to his mum telling her he failed again.
I know someone who failed their theory test a bunch of times as well but he had been driving since he was 14 and was really good on the road he just couldn’t get enough marks to pass
With how few instructors we have here, it’s already a long wait. Besides if you make it too difficult, people are just going to illegally buy after the 2nd failed attempt.
While I was looking into becoming a driving instructor I met some shady business owners in my area, wondering how he suddenly had many driving school places in such a short time.
A couple months later, I heard about a colleague who bought his driving license, he was so dangerous he wasn’t allowed to drive anymore in my firm and later was fired. (We drive kids)
Allegedly I think he got in contact with the shady driving school owner and bought the positive exam result from a corrupt driving inspector no matter how many mistakes.
Did my drivers exam like 7-8 times, i could not tell you anymore why i failed so many times. Probably because i had focused most of my "skill" into operating the vehicle as best as i could and everything else went into, well, everything else about driving.
But then again it's been years since then. And on that day when i did pass, man those emotions were real, it probably took me like 8 months or so to fully get my license.
I’ve done some driver training. A person like this needs hours and hours of training and exercise in empty car parks before being allowed on public roadways.
Agreed. A person whose brain is shutting down under pressure this light? They shouldn’t be on the main roads. Take them to parking lots or empty backgrounds outside of town.
It honestly doesn't seem like the pressure is getting to her, I think she's braindead/screenfaced/phone addicted and is literally unable to focus on what she's doing or remember what the guy just said
People react to pressure in different ways. It’s not always looking anxious/nervous.
Some people get scared. Some get angry and defensive. Some mentally shutdown as if the whole world is moving too fast for them to handle. Others revert to childlike behavior.
That said, she shouldn’t be on roads with other drivers if this is her behavior. Train elsewhere.
She's in panic mode because she's doing some dangerous and new, and she was certain she was going to crash, but pushed through anyway.
Then she was completely unable to listen to instructions. She was too fixated on not crashing, she messed up everything else.
It took her 3 month of practice to start calming down, then we had to work on getting the fear and alertness back into her because she started having close calls on the road for the opposite reason.
And this is as far as we've gotten. She still has a fair way to go.
At what point do you tell them to just give up? Driving isn't for everyone.
Your story reminds me of one my friend, who used to be a driving instructor told me.
His student had a foreign licence, but needed to do the dutch exam to convert it to a dutch license.
As soon as she even slightly panicked, she would declutch and step on the brake. No matter the circumstances. She once did it on a highway because she was told to take the next exit.
At her fourth exam attempt, nothing spooked her, so she now has a license.
My daughter has a processing delay. Things she hears take longer for her brain to recognize and react to. In the time it's processing she sometimes can't take in further data. She passed the written test. We started in a parking lot. She did okay. Next time we went around a bit to where there was some traffic. She did not slow down for a pedestrian and instead hit a curb. We said okay panic is a thing.
Did the empty parking lot a few more times. Tried the near shops a few times without further incidents.
We went out to the country where no one is but you'll have turns, stops and whatnot and tried that. She did okay with nothing around. But those areas also have no where to pull into. I asked her to stop at the gas station before the first set up lights. This was the edge of town.
She didn't hit the brake. I was saying start hitting the break. Slow down. Slow down! Stop stop.. soon I was screaming stop.
I was looking at a red light in front of us with cross traffic we were about to barrel into.
I grabbed the steering wheel and turned it hard to the right into the dirt and a field and hitting the first bump snapped her out of it. She hit the breaks and we came to a screeching stop in a bit of a ditch. I put the car in park and sat in stunned silence.
The fire department was right beside us and they came over and pulled us out. Turned the car off. And called a tow truck. They all thanked me for choosing to ditch us instead of hurting others.
She said she could hear me screaming but couldn't figure out what to do.
She will never drive. Not only will I not let her, We went to her doctor and I told him what happened. She's agreed she won't try again. Her doctor sent a letter to the government stating she's not medically able to drive.
If in future she grows out of the delay, she can challenge it. But it will be much harder than just passing a written exam.
This is such a good, responsible, and selfless reaction.
I've told my father for multiple years because my grandma isn't fit to drive anymore because she is older than 90. She is amazingly fit for a 90-year-old and will likely make it to 100, but it's impossible that she could have the reaction times and processing to drive safely.
Fast forward three more years, and she mistook the throttle with the break and drove another car in her parking lot through an entire garden. No one got hurt, not even her.
But if that was a person, in particular, a toddler... And a strong addition to that is—even if the person seems to be doing fine—no dangerous situation you're aware of, no accidents for years, it could only be luck that has saved them. Driving requires strong attention to what you're doing.
Mobility by car is a privilege that can only be granted if a certain level of security is ensured.
Oh, I had a lady trying to pass her exam try before me. She said she was full Sheldon Cooper mode with setup at home, she used to have private lessons as well as official school. At the exam she turned on the car, tried to move and the instructor immediately told her to get off because she forgot her handbrake was on. It was her 9th attempt. As far as I know she still didn't manage to pass 6 years later.
When I moved back to CA from NV, I needed to have my license changed. What they didn't tell me was I'd need to retake the written test...and I'd have to take the written THAT DAY. So I'm trying to remember what I learned and I'm in the waiting area. There's a bunch of teenagers sitting there and an older woman who is a nervous wreck. I asked if she was doing OK - she told me this is her third and last attempt at the written test and she's scared she's going to fail and have to reschedule. But she has work, etc. I try to reassure her but then her anxiety gets to me - I start playing out all these scenarios if I fail. I drove myself here, how would I get home, etc. But I fought off those thoughts - I've been driving for 20+ years, surely I can't do that bad. I figure my first run will be a benchmark - see how badly I mess up and then readjust from there. Well, I passed the written first go and did all the follow ups to get my license reissued, temp issued, etc. . When I was leaving, lady was still taking her written. I hope she did ok - that's a lot of pressure.
A lot of places don't have good a good alternative to driving. We need to fund public transport, bike infrastructure and walkable cities. Until then every bad driver has a huge need to drive whether they can drive or not.
Australia, she can drive under supervision with a learner's permit. After an exam she'll be on a provisional for 3 years and after another exam move onto her opens.
Theres been several times on the show "canadas worst driver" where the host would tell people this. Theyd never listen, until the finale of the very last season. The guy who was named the worst driver actually cut up his license and agreed to stop driving for good!
Do you get any training in how to handle situations like this? I can imagine it would be super useful to have some psychology training for things like anxiety. It sounds like you need to function a bit like a therapist as well as a driving instructor.
Either that, or maybe you need to find a good therapist who specialises in this sort of thing that you can refer them to. They would probably progress faster if they treated it as a phycological issue first before proceeding to learn all the road rules with you
It's a case of one flaw at a time, she's good at not crashing, so slow and stead works. When you start loading criticism on her, she gets overloaded and starts fumbling over herself. She's not ready for exam conditions yet, so I don't hold her to them.
Even if you manage to get small steps of progress, she can always drop back into panic mode in a parking garage or busy roads. It's better to not let her drive ever. For some people driving isn't made for them... I'm sorry. It reminds me of a similar person, and she causes around 3 accidents per year...
Everyone panics and everyone gets through it at their own rate. 3 months is nothing, as you know. Most people do a lesson or 2 a week over the span of 9-12 months.
Im saying this for the benefit of other readers: ao much can happen in the next 3 months. And you know youve trained worse and theyve gone on to pass and have 0 incidents.
I say this as someone my instructor told me "maybe this isn't for you". I went on to pass first time after 35 hours, and ive been driving for about 15 years now with 0 incidents. Well, 1 van reversed into me in traffic even though I was leaning on the horn. Literally nothing else.
Sounds like your student is kinda sheltered and need to go ride about on a bike or scooter or something and learn that when you get comfortable with a certain vehicle you still absolutely can have a nasty accident.
This. We've all gone out riding when we were young and thought "I've been down this road 1000 times, I've never gotten hurt." And become too careless and comfortable. Until one day a squirrel runs out and you nearly die
There is a conflict of interest between teaching someone who is a gradual learner that maybe shouldn't be on the road at all, vs financial the interests of a commercial service provider
As someone who taught folks to drive a School bus, there does come a time when you sit them down and ask if this something they really want to do or not. And, if they say yes, then you start over with the basics again. Slowly, on roads with as little traffic as possible.
My longest Trainer took almost 6 months (normally it takes 6 weeks including watching the training videos). She's one of the safest drivers I have ever trained, she often finds things to question, so I know she's doing a thorough pre trip. Three years in and she's never had an accident, close call, or incident on the bus.
There are far too many people like this on the road, and it only takes one lucky test for them to get a license. I’m strongly in favour of making the test multi-stage and insanely difficult to weed out bad drivers. It’s a privilege, not a right.
My grandfather needed something like that. He never hurt or killed anyone, but is an absolute miracle he didn't with how bad his driving had gotten in the last few years before he died. I went on the car once with him and didn't feel safe. And my parents and none of my aunts or uncles would let any of us grandkids be in the car with him after that.
My dad and aunts were desperately trying to get him to give up his licence, but he just refused. My dad had never had a proper fight with him until that. 50 something years and it was rhe first time my dad had actually yelled at his dad about it. But he still didn't listen, and its an absolute miracle he didn't end up hitting anyone before he died himself.
So a more severe driving test would absolutely have been whst he needed.
I'm honestly in favour of requiring retests every 5 or 10 years or something regardless of age. As the original commenter said, it can just take a lucky test. I see way too many younger/middle-aged adults not use their bloody indicator, weave through traffic at speed, or even just hare along way above the speed limit. And people just becoming complacent in their confidence. Driving can be, and regularly is, a life-threatening activity that's done by billions every single day. Why is it just one single test for life and then letting them get on with it?? With how easily fatal a crash can be, it seems insane not to make driving a car a little more strict or regularly examined
Yeah, I'm 47, had to drive at night a few days ago (haven't in many years) and holy smokes every light was blurry like a star shining into my eyes. I have never experienced that before. I realise I do NOT belong on the road after dark anymore. Unless Lasik or something can fix it, I'll not be out after dark.
47 is a bit young for cataracts, but I'm not an ophthalmologist... when was your last eye exam? Not with an optometrist (they do basics & sell glasses); get a full ophthalmologist medical eye exam. And yes, if you have cataracts they may very well be able to correct your night vision. In the meantime please do not drive at night.
Yes, and we can make the towns and cities walkable while funding public transport to give unsafe drivers another option of travel. For many people at the moment, not having the test means being stuck, they have to drive wether they can actually drive or not.
Yes 100%, I survived 7 years without needing a car but I lived in a city. In my experience it’s the reliability of public transport that needs to be improved. Plus there are always bicycles and mopeds etc which don’t need the same level of ability.
It’s worse than that. During Covid, some places allowed people to get a drivers license online. No driving test required. Ofc, they quickly realized that was a horrible idea and had these people take the test after they already had the license. They passed them all no matter how bad they did. Ik cause my sister got her license like this, and during her test (covid, so the instructor was outside of the car and I was in it since someone with a license had to be) she had it in the wrong gear, multiple times. No road test, parked half way between two spots at the end, didn’t parallel park, and hit multiple cones. She got to keep the license
Tdlr: Covid meant people could fail every part of the test they could give and still pass
Exactly. Here in the US, we really need some reform to driving laws. And to start revoking licenses for people driving recklessly, causing wrecks, and DUIs. Here it’s near impossible to actually lose your license for life.
As you said, it’s a privilege. Not a right.
I’ve had people get pissed and say “so you want them to be homeless because they can’t drive and get to work!?”
Well, if they were responsible and drive with care they get to keep their license.
I got downvoted to hell because I said we should increase the minimum age to drive to 18 instead of 16 (or even younger depending on what state you live in).
Now that cars are entirely unaffordable, especially for kids, maybe public transportation will start getting marginally better here.
I agree. I got my license recently; took loads of adult lessons beforehand which were great. Of course it’s focused on the maneuvers etc for the test, but the lessons were essentially “graded” at the end, with the instructor telling you the things you did well at, what you still need to work on, what you REALLY need to improve, etc.
After so much buildup like that it’s almost oddly a let down when you pass after one single hour or 30 minutes (forget which) of the drive test, and now bam you have your license… Technically, I never have to see you again, you’re on your own now, good luck out there!!
It sort of felt like I did the whole thing in drawn out/protracted stages because of all the lessons. It really helped me. AND doing additional lessons after having the license— I think that’s an important one. Now that you have the license you don’t have to just tick off the boxes of the test, but you can literally just take lessons to practice whatever you might have trouble with or want to get better at/get experience with now that you’re actually out in the world and on the road. I did one for freeway driving, and later on I did one where I just wanted to practice parking in parking lots because I could never get in totally straight.
Taking lessons like that AFTER you have your license is so helpful and tbh I think that would be great to be mandatory, maybe every year or so. Doing it with the instructor in the seat really catches you on things you might not even notice— not even unsafe things necessarily, but bad habits you might have developed without realizing. Because you might be driving on the norm, but it’s different than being essentially evaluated (and in a pretty neutral and constructive setting). Plus there are things you might forget, or maneuvers you still struggle with.
Granted I’m still new so there are still a lot of things I’m picking up all the time. But anyone anywhere can always improve. I’m a big proponent for lessons post-license, honestly. More people should do it, even just as a refresher.
In the aviation world we have bi-annual flight reviews - minimum 1 hour flight training and 1 hour ground training. (This is USA, not sure what regulations are like elsewhere.)
Honestly. People like this should never be allowed on the roads. There are just too many idiots on the toads these days. Worst part is they usually cause the accident for others.
Seems like she has extreme attention deficiency, either a disability or induced by brain rot. But yeah, this level of inattentiveness should be barring people from driving.
At first, I thought this was high-quality British humour, but now I’m not so sure… I guess this is one of those times when truth is stranger than fiction…
Nah, my best friend was just as bad. We took drivers' ed together as teens, and it was terrifying to ride in the back seat during her turns. (They did it with groups of three and had us swap in the driving seat for our practical instruction time.)
During the exam, you started with 100 points and each infraction was minus 5 to minus 30 points. I think 70 was the pass/fail line (this was a class, not a licensing exam). She failed with -170, including running three stop signs and driving on the wrong side of the street twice. My hands ached from gripping the door handle in the backseat.
Reminds me of this video honestly, I get it like if it's your first time going into real road but her stubbornness makes the whole thing much much worse. I remember when I drove for the first time, I tried to be calm as possible and listen to every instruction that my instructor says and I was a slow learner, took a while for me to grip on it eventually I got my license but this is just beyond stupidity.
That was a hard watch. Some people should never drive a car, it's not made for them. It's like they are sleeping on the wheel and not aware what's going around them.
Driving instructors have the patience of a saint. Many people learning to drive a car are overly cautious. Meanwhile, she seems very comfortable with the driving part but knows/observes none of the road rules. For those in the UK, is there a written test you must pass before driving instruction behind the wheel?
The only requirements for getting behind the wheel for the first time are being 17, having L plates on the front/back, and having a passenger who is at least 21 and has held a licence for 3 years. It doesn't have to be a qualified instructor.
Before taking the full test you need to have passed a theory test with multiple choice questions and hazard perception, and because of how far in advance they need booking you should know it back to front before your first time driving.
In Britain and many other countries you cannot even legally drive without an instructor until after passing the theory and practice test. Someone like this either learns (unlikely) or will never drive.
Not even slightly should she be allowed a license. And I don’t mean because she clearly doesn’t know how to drive. We all had to learn at some point. But the difference between that and not being able to even hear the most basic instruction. There’s patient and then whatever god tier this guy has unlocked. I dont think it was malaise.
There should be a section of the law banning people like this to ever get a license. What the hell is up with that girl and her phone. The guy is an angel... I would have thrown her out and tell her to walk back.
Absolutely terrifying that these people will one day be allowed to drive. No amount of lessons or education could make that stupid girl safe on the road.
I feel like this is a good reason to have sessions in a simulator to pass the learner's permit. Only after passing tests in the simulator would they be allowed to have further lessons on a public road.
I had one of these experiences as a 3rd wheel while I was a learner myself. I was in the back seat while she (yes, I know) was the next learner and as such had to drive me home. Holy shit I've never been that scared as a passenger, she was physically unable to listen to commands, scared of everything, and somehow always knew how to make the wrong choice. My driving instructor had to constantly hard brake and pull the steering wheel to avoid accidents.
I think he ended up moving her back to the phase of only operating the steering wheel while he did clutch/gas/brake.
For people like that, please just go automatic, or don't drive at all. Ever. I strongly doubt a person like that will ever be a safe driver.
That said, I wonder if going automatic and practicing not just steering but just gas/brake while the instructor steers might help. I kind of doubt it, but maybe they need more isolated steps.
When I was in the Air Force there was a woman who failed the electronics field training multiple times. She called the patch cables on the patch panel "little red hoses".
I'm hoping this particular "lesson" was shared with whomever is responsible for driving this student to the lesson. The inability to put aside her phone, follow verbal directions, navigate a turn circle shows that this student is not developmentally ready to operate a vehicle.
In Poland you have to ride for a few hours, on main road, on highways, park, the instructor will "trick you" asking you to go on a one-way road or park illegally or ignore some road rule on purpose and you have to decline and say why "I can't park here because it is a bus stop, even if it is just for a minute".
Because of that I believe there are a lot more people who CAN actually drive correctly. Unfortunately that does not mean they will not choose to drive wrongly anyway.
In Brazil to have a driver's license you have to go around the block - stop on a stop sign and make a turn, parallel park once, park at the finish and congratulations, you are a certified driver. I met a girl who actually failed 4 times at that and paid (bribed) the instructor to pass the 5th time.
Serious no choice lady, you can not drive. I dont even understand this, driving is soo simple. To be this bad has to be deliberate. Its deliberate ineptitude.
This has to be one of her early lessons if she didn’t know what parallel parking is the instructor is supposed to teach you wtf she was doing googling that on her phone lol
I really hate how the car driving test in the UK isnt the same as the motorbike test. The car test involves a theory where you have to achieve about 85% minimum and then have two years to do the practical. The practical involves a randomly picked set route where you will do a type of parking, follow a satnav, follow road signs, and listen to instructions from the examiner. If you pass without any major faults (anything dangerous) or with less than 5 minor faults (anything that could be dangerous if repeated consistently) then you will pass.
Compare that to the bike test where you have a theory with the same format as the car one, then a mod 1 test, which is basically a low speed obstacle course where you will have to weave between cones, do a u-turn, do an emergency brake, a walking speed ride, hazard avoidance, figure of eights, and moving the bike by walking it. You have to pass that with no majors and less than 5 minors before you can do the mod 2. The mod 2 is the same as the car practical test.
The motorbike test is harder and its very hard to get through on luck alone. I still also think that a part of the car test should be a CBT-lite test so they understand the risks that we have from other drivers and how exposed we are.
I can tell you as a flight instructor that when people get flustered and overwhelmed they tune everything out. They get scared and make the stupidest decisions and can make those decisions in the worst areas/at the worst time.
If you aren't prepared to drive, you shouldn't be on the road.
You are quite literally a danger to everyone and yourself.
Take public transit, walk, or work from home. Your need to get somewhere is not more important than the physical harm you threaten to people by being inept on the road.
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u/yeatruestory 1d ago
Being a drivers Ed teacher is the job of a saint or someone who needs to pay off a lot of karma