Driving tests should be tough

Driving tests should be hard to pass, says Craig Cooper.

It's hard to pass your driving test in Whangarei apparently.

It shouldn't be easy, but commenters on our Facebook page this week suggested that learner drivers were heading out of the Whangarei district to sit tests in "easier" towns.

In Monday's Northern Advocate we'll go over local pass rates in more detail.

After discussing it amongst colleagues and doing some research, it turns out that the things that you get failed for now, are just like they were before the new incremental licence system was introduced in 2012.

Mounting the kerb in 2016 will get you failed. As will stalling a manual car, failing to stop at a stop sign and speeding.

The biggest fear I had when I took my test on July 23, 1985, was stalling a hill start.

I had heard rumours that one or two "testers" didn't bother with the hill start.

Not mine. And not only did I have to do the hill start, but I had to make a three-point turn on a hill. I bumped the kerb, but didn't mount it, as I reversed.

Covered in chicken pox scars from an illness I had barely recovered from, I wasn't optimistic.

But I'll never forget the words: "You'd better come and get your licence."

Minutes later, I should have had it taken off me after I drove through a stop sign and nearly got cleaned out by a car that left two scorching tyre marks on Hannah St.

I was barely 500m from the MOT office where I had taken the test.

Shaking and petrified, I didn't want to drive.

My father made me drive home.

Another scare a few months later taught me a valuable lesson.

Heading south on Kiripaka Rd, I lost control in wet weather and slammed on the brakes.

My vehicle stopped sliding on the wrong side of the road facing north.

Those two near misses jolted me into a safer driving mode.

A few months ago, I witnessed a crash in wet weather, the car sliding toward our vehicle, spinning 360 degrees and slamming into a bank.

We phoned in the 111 - the driver survived.

Seeing that spinning car invoked a sense of dread. Luckily I have only ever felt that emotion, and not the impact of a crashing car.

Driving tests should be tough - if they were easy, there would be more carnage on our roads. More injuries. More deaths. More devastated families.

To Whangarei driving testers, keep up the good work.