Gosport driving instructor backs campaign to combat the abuse of learner drivers

Simon Stevenson, an instructor at Life Skills Driving School, has joined thousands of others by signing a petition.

The campaign was launched by learner driver insurers Marmalade – gathering 9,400 signatures.

Mr Stevenson explained his commitment: ‘Without a doubt in my mind, the quality of driving has reduced in the past few years along with patience, courtesy, and just being a decent person while on the road.

‘We get overtaken on blind bends with twin solid white lines. We get tailgated.

‘On a daily basis, we’re beeped at for hesitation, not moving off from lights within two tenths of a second of the lights going to green, for not fitting in the tiniest of gaps when joining a roundabout.

‘This is on top of hand gestures or verbal abuse as they come screaming past us while we've been doing 30mph in a 30mph zone.’

Marmalade’s research revealed this sort of abuse is endemic: 99 per cent of driving instructors have witnessed such incidents.

Furthermore, 59 per cent of driving instructors have noticed an increase in misconduct since the start of the pandemic, while 72 per cent observe that its victims are more mistake-prone.

Mr Stevenson said he even had a pupil quit driving altogether, so great was the damage to their confidence.

Occurrences like this have spurred him on.

‘I've now started to save a weekly portfolio of the worst cases from each week of video footage just to show how large the problem is,’ he said.

The instructor is far from alone in his desire to rectify the problem.

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Paul Baxter, managing director of Marmalade, said, ‘Our research found that 54 per cent of all respondents would support on-the-spot fines for abuse, with 50 per cent suggesting anger management courses and 35 per cent backing three penalty points.’

Mr Baxter’s hope is that most drivers will see the sense in these measures and respond accordingly.

‘Everyone who drives has been a learner before, so they should be able to empathise with the struggles of learner drivers and feel compelled to help by signing this petition,’ he added.

Further information and the petition can be found here.