Use
For this part of the lesson, the pupil and the mentor should read the following and then put it into practice whilst driving.
At the risk of sounding obvious, the purpose of the mirrors is to give the driver knowledge of what is going on all around the car. Therefore, any time you are going to speed up, slow down, move to the left or the right, signal, or if you are just anticipating you may have to do any of these things, you must check your mirrors first to make sure it is safe to do so.
So, lets look at each change in speed or direction and think of the reasons why we should check the mirrors first.
- Speeding up. This means any time you have to speed up. You may, for example, be pulling away from a junction, about to overtake, accelerating after taking a sharp bend. By checking your mirrors at this point you are looking for many things, but mostly you need to check that there isn’t anyone trying to overtake you. If there is and you start to accelerate, they may find it difficult to get past. If they can’t get past and a vehicle comes the other way, there may be a serious accident. So you should ease off the accelerator and let them pass. Remember, if you deliberately accelerate to stop someone completing a passing manoeuvre and there is an accident, you could well find yourself guilty of an extremely serious offence and finish up in prison - not worth the risk!
- Slowing down. This means any time you have to slow down or think you may have to slow down. Checking your mirrors at this point is one way the examiner can tell how far ahead you are looking and planning. If you are not looking well ahead, situations may develop that you haven’t seen and cause you to finish up slamming on your brakes as you see it at the last moment. You must check your mirrors to see if there is anything close behind. If there is, you should brake earlier and more gently than usual incase the driver behind isn’t paying attention. Many rear end collisions would be avoidable if the driver in front had been planning well ahead and so braked a little more gently - if they don’t, any accident may still be the fault of the following vehicle, but good driving by the front vehicle may have made it avoidable.
- Moving or turning to the left or right. Any time you are going to move the vehicle off it’s normal course, you need to check the appropriate mirrors. So if you are turning or moving left, you should check the interior and exterior left mirrors. If you are turning or moving right, you should check the interior and exterior right mirrors. You are checking the interior mirror to see if any vehicles are about to move up next to you so that turning would cause a collision. You check the external mirrors to see if there is a vehicle already there for the same reason. You may also have to check your blind spots (see below).
- Signalling. Remember MSM. Mirrors, Signal, Manoeuvre. We must always check our mirrors before signalling for the simple reason we must make sure it’s actually safe to signal. For example, have you ever, as a passenger, been bombing down the outside lane of a dual carriageway or motorway only to have one of the cars you’re overtaking suddenly start to signal they are going to move into your lane? It causes panic doesn’t it - are they about to move out without looking? Are they going to just crash into you? The result is a slamming of the breaks just incase he hasn’t seen you and, of course, this can cause all kinds of problems behind if cars are too close. Now if the driver who signalled had check his mirrors, seen you overtaking and waited until you’d gone before signalling, all would be well. This is just one example of why it so important to check your mirrors before signalling - always.
- Blind spots.Blind spots are areas to the side and rear of the car which the driver cannot see when looking ahead, either in their mirrors or with direct vision. When turning, changing lanes or chaning the position of the car in the road, you should always check the appropriate blindspot by turning your head. So, if you are moving from the left to right lane, do your mirror checks and signal and, just before you move out, check your blind spot as a final precaution - you'll be surprised how often there is something there, such as a motor bike - particularly in heavy traffic. When turning your head to look, make sure you don't turn your whole body as doing so may cause you to accidentally turn the steering wheel!
