Say NO #LearnerAbuse
4th February 2020
Pass N Go is supporting the campaign to take action against learner abuse.
The Say NO #LearnerAbuse campaign was launched earlier in 2019. The campaign has an administration team of ten DVSA Approved Driving Instructors and since it’s launch, the support received has been outstanding. However, without the support of other agencies, the administration team feels that the campaign will struggle to move on.
Why do we need the Say No #Learner Abuse Campaign?
Every day, thousands of driving instructors go to work in order to not just earn a living but, to improve the lives of the individuals they work with. It is fair to say that most driving instructors are passionate about helping new drivers succeed and improving the standard of driving on the UK roads. Unfortunately, during the course of our working day, many of us experience abuse from other road users. Some of this abuse is verbal but some is also physical. Yes, some driving instructors have reported being punched, kicked, dragged from their car and spat at. All because they may have held someone up for a few seconds. Although the physical abuse has not yet become common place, the verbal abuse has. Most driving instructors also report dangerous overtakes, aggressive sounding of the horn and brake checks.
According to our driving instructors, learners are having to put up with abuse from other motorists during driving lessons. This ranges from tailgating and dangerous overtaking to verbal abuse, learners are starting to become targets for other drivers’ road rage outbursts and this does need to stop as the effect on the majority of students will become more nervous and make more mistakes and having to pull over to compose themselves.
Some learners have quit lessons as they are too worried or intimidated due to the abuse and a small number of learners have experienced an accident due to this behavior of other motorists.
Other drivers might believe that these instances of abuse are caused by experienced drivers becoming frustrated with learners driving slowly or stalling at junctions.
The L plate should serve as warning to others that the driver is under instruction and should be given patience and understanding. The learner driver is a trainee and should be allowed their training in a safe environment just like a trainee in any workplace.
Help make a difference
Help other learner drivers in regards to the fight to change the law please sign the petition Add your voice to the call for parliament to introduce a law that penalizes learner abuse.
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