I always thought that I wanted to be an observer however,
after passing my advanced driving test in April 2007 and starting a new job
shortly afterwards, I discovered that I did not have the time to give. During the subsequent years, the idea stayed
at the back of my mind and I promised myself that, once I'd divested some of my
other voluntary roles, I would revisit it.
That time came a few months ago.
After meeting my Training Officer and sitting in the back
during one of the Sunday morning runs to see how the experts do it, my first
training session quickly arrived; I was a trainee with the Mid-Kent IAM Group
once more. This time however, I was
destined to sit in the passenger seat.
The first thing I noticed was that it's not as easy as you may
think. Being an Observer means not only
do you have to give the directions to the Associate in a timely manner
(therefore watching the road to spot your waypoints) but you also have to try
and watch the Associate at those critical times in order to guide and advise
them on how to improve their car control and driving. It is totally different to being a normal
passenger where, as drivers, we watch the road and see where we're going. Now, on approaching a hazard, I need to
remember to look at the floor to check if the Associate is using the System
correctly or overlapping. This is not
a natural instinct.
The Observer also needs to give feedback, both positive and
negative, and gently probe so as to find out what the Associate understands and
where gaps may exist. This is not always
easy and certainly during my first session there were a number of pregnant
pauses which I struggled to fill.
Thankfully the other person I am training with also experienced similar
difficulties! It was emphasised that on
a typical drive opportunities will present themselves, either through road
conditions or the actions of other road users, and these can be used to
illustrate how the System - which as we know underpins everything - can be
correctly applied. Doing this is much
harder than it sounds since to be a good observer you have to be constantly
checking, assessing and analysing each action and comparing it to how you, as
an Advanced Driver, would've dealt with the same situation.
So, what else did I learn?
I found out during my run (where I acted as the 'Associate' and my
training partner the 'Observer') that a few bad habits had slipped in to my
driving that need to be rectified. I
discovered that there are a couple of gaps in my knowledge regarding the finer
points of the Highway Code (such as the speed lorries are limited to on a
motorway) and, most importantly, I realised I needed to refresh my memory of
the book since this is the Bible and the foundations upon which everything the
Associate does can be built.
Our next training run involves devising a route and completing
that all important run sheet. The next
blog post will let you know how I get on!
Neil Lakeland - Trainee Observer.
If your a member of the Mid-Kent Group of Advanced Motorist and wish to follow in the footsteps of Neil, please contact John Bowman. If your not a member, why not join us? Contact us by email or apply now on the web
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