IHCD Blue Light Driver Training Days 9-10

Day 9

Was a night drive. We started late in the day in order for the Sun to go down and the stars to come out.

Prior to any driving we carried out the usual procedure of the vehicle daily inspections followed by a quick discussion of the dangers and principles of night time driving.

The Dangers:

• restricted vision
• estimation of speed and distance
• reflections inside and outside the vehicle
• dazzle
• fatigue
• moving from light to dark areas
• a film of moisture, grease or dirt on windows increasing glare

All very obvious dangers you may think. That may be true but how many of you actually consider them? I don’t know too many people that allow for restricted vision or diminished speed and distance estimation at night. In fact I’d say that a percentage of drivers will drive faster and more erratically at night due to the relatively emptier roads.

The advice:

• clean windows, lights and reflectors
• adjust angle of headlights for vehicle load
• ensure lights and switches, windscreen washers, wipers and demisters work properly
• use main beam when appropriate
• use dipped headlights on left hand bends, hump bridges, overtaking, heavy rain, snow and fog.
• avoid being dazzled by oncoming traffic by looking towards nearside (left in UK) of road and slow down
• observe other vehicles headlights and tail lamps, and cats eyes for clues as to direction of road
• If tired —>stop safely, get fresh air, rest and get refreshments

Due to it being summer we only had an hour or so of actual night driving with the remainder being dusk. To be honest I found that dusk presented the greater hazard. Driving in and out of the shadows and towards the Sun on the horizon presented a greater challenge than darkness. This was probably because my eyes were never afforded the opportunity to ‘get used’ to one light setting. However, at night your eyes become accustomed and things become a lot clearer.

A good tip was to use dipped headlights (rather than full beam) when turning a left corner as the lights are aligned slightly to the nearside. If you maintain full beam on a left corner the road is practically invisible as all the light is directed way ahead and elevated. This advice is good for humped bridges and hill crests too.

I enjoyed the change of setting from day to night. The day stuff was beginning to drain me to be honest. Night driving allowed me to scan into the distance looking for clues as to the contours of the county roads. The cat eyes are a great help when trying to use the limit point method. A good point to remember with cars eyes is: the more there are, the greater the danger.

Day 10

Motorways. Today was all about joining the motorway; on the motorway; and exiting the motorway. The IHCD Driving book devotes a large section of the book to motorways and this has been reciprocated by our instructors as we have been up and down the motorways since day one. In essence nothing new was taught to us today but pertinent points were revisited.

General motorway safety:

• maintain lane discipline
• maintain safe following distance
• do not reverse
• plan your exit route
• be alert

Motorways are excellent for practising overtakes and acceleration sense. I tried to combine the two without using the brakes. It can be done. One thing you notice about people driving along motorways is that they are mostly reactive and hardly proactive. If one person touches the brake it usually creates a wave effect. Within a split second five or so cars react and also brake creating a caterpillar effect where the traffic constantly closes up and spreads out again. Infuriating.

The end of day 10 signifies the half way point of blue light training. Hopefully, the next time we go out it will be on ‘blues and twos’.