CAM NEWSLETTER No.7

Welcome to our latest edition of CAM News. We have had a very enjoyable series of meetings so far this year; we were at Wadebridge in January, Truro in February and Carnon Downs at the end of March. All well attended, I am pleased to say, but there is always room for more. Perhaps some of you who have yet to join us can be tempted along later this year as we have an interesting series of speakers booked and these events are always worthwhile attending. Associates are welcome, too.

Steve Froud from the Driving Standards Agency came well prepared for his talk to us on the driving test through the years; we saw some great vintage video of driving lessons from the fifties and the sixties, hand signals and all! Those of us who braved the terrible weather that evening had a good time.

Ron Spence from the Mobility Centre in Truro was able to surprise a few members at his talk held in the Lychgate Schoolroom at Kenwyn; he told us the centre tries very hard to keep people mobile after an accident or illness and described some of the unusual devices that can be fitted to vehicles of all sorts from scooters to cars. Many are designed for the individual needs of a person and fitted in their own garage workshop facility on site. We are hoping to hold a group event there next year so that our members can see first hand some of the valuable and interesting work that these people do.

Helen Schofield, our Regional Council Member for the IAM, gave us an interesting insight into the workings of the IAM and fielded many questions from the floor after our break for tea and coffee. Helen is always ‘good value’ and she made the trip down to us from Bath and had to return the next day as she had another meeting to attend. As has been said before. Helen and her colleagues, like your committee, are all volunteers and are either ‘retired’ or have a proper ‘day job’ as well so you can see that they are dedicated to the cause of safer motoring.

Our Motorcycle sub group continues to flourish and grow and there are articles about their activities in this issue.

On a personal note, I have to advise you that I am stepping down as Chairman, and Jim Boote our Vice-Chairman is taking over from me and will see the group through the resulting changes. My reason for leaving the post is simply down to a health problem and it seems that the only way to deal with this is by reducing my workload and this is one way of doing it. I have enjoyed my time in the chair supported by a first rate team on the committee. They all work very hard and can now start seeing the fruits of their labour, with a growing number of car and motorcycle members together with a healthy bank balance that will enable them to do much more in the future, with you and for you.

Keep supporting CAM and IAM and thank you everyone for all your efforts, I hope to see many of you at the various events and take care.

from the Observers Organiser, David Ede

Firstly, many congratulations to all the new observers who have completed their training and who have started with [or are awaiting] new Associates:-

Tony Roberts, Robert Buckham, Tony Bush, Hugh Calder-Jones, Jason Carne, Fr John Greatbatch, Ben Harris, Rob Kinna, Steve Pearce, John Pearson, Anthony Rowe, Paul Shearn, Chris Stokes, Stafford Sumner, Arthur Hosken and Ken Weston. And welcome to Marrylyn Smith, our latest lady observer with a car fitted with an automatic gearbox. We still need more ...please!

Any member who wishes to become an observer needs only to contact me to start the process; we are particularly low on women observers and people who drive cars with automatic gearboxes. Are there any more women members in CAM with automatics [like Marrylyn] who wish to help others drive more safely? CAM needs you!

Unfortunately, two of the potential Senior car trainees have had to withdraw due to pressure of work. We hope to find a suitable “co-trainee” to take the senior test with Kathryn Kitchen shortly.

On behalf of the CAM committee, I congratulate Tim Soper and Peter Smith who both recently passed their motorcycle senior observers tests. The other candidates are progressing with their training and should be test ready soon.

I would like ALL observers to remember that if any queries arise don’t hesitate to contact me. Don’t forget that there is no such thing as a perfect driver or rider! I understand that observers currently outweigh the associate intake (which has meant a delay for some new observers to be allotted their first associate) but have no fear, advertising will soon redress the balance!

and from the Associates Organiser… Mark Brodrick

First I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to become the Associates Coordinator and especially Dave Ede for all his help given me over the last few months. This has been invaluable.

Just a little about me. I have been in the IAM for twelve years and have enjoyed most of it. There was a slight bit of disillusionment a few years ago, but thanks to Stephen Nelson and Diana Smeath, our CAM Group has now got back on track.

I came upon the IAM just after I passed my driving test in the army in the mid-sixties. I had to drive an officer to the main airport in Belfast. He stated that my driving was awful (not his words, mine). He then gave me half an hour of IAM instruction. I learnt more in those thirty minutes than in the whole of my driving lessons. Why I didn’t carry on I do not know.

On another matter, please would all observers chase up their associates after their tests and let me know if they have passed. This would help greatly to keep the books up to date - and of course we want to publish the good news.

Finally I should like to thank Stephen for all the help and hard work that he has put into the Group and wish him well. I also wish to thank Jim Boote for taking the helm at short notice.

Mark Brodrick

Fifty members and guests assembled in the Lychgate at Kenwyn Church to hear Ron Spence, Driving Assessor of the Cornwall Mobility Centre, talk about the work of the centre in returning people with disabilities to as full mobility as is possible.

The Centre was founded in the old Tehidy Hospital, and was the first in the country. The Cornwall Mobility Centre assesses drivers’ ability to drive, their disabilities and means of countering them. The DSA driving test has the same criteria for disabled people as for the able-bodied and is a test of ability and competence not of methodology. The centre is a DVLA accredited driving assessment centre, and Ron Spence was keen to show that an assessment was exactly that, an assessment of needs and abilities and not a driving test with a pass or fail. The main aim of the Centre is to reintroduce clients to mobility by whatever means is most appropriate.

The Cornwall Disability Centre has a well-appointed workshop for adapting vehicles to cover all levels of ability, with simple adaptations for limited problems through to major adaptations to address major disability. The workshop with its engineering solutions is one of the finest in the country, concentrating on issues of safety and comfort for the driver. Many solutions are amazingly simple and advantageously priced, with a spectacular return on investment.

Many drivers are referred to the Centre by their GPs when they are having physical problems with the complex series of actions that we call driving. The specialist engineering of the Centre can bring remarkable results and safely restore the ability to drive and so help to improve the quality of life for people who are disabled.

Tony Lea: A little example of speeding offences and the effect they can have.
I used to serve with the police in Hampshire, and when motorists grizzled about being prosecuted for 40 in a 30 limit, I used to set this little question.

You drive at 30 and a child runs out in front of you. You do an emergency stop on a dry road and you stop inches away from the child. Now repeat the scenario at 40, and what speed will you be doing when you hit the child? The answer, surprisingly, is the 30 mph that you should have been doing. At 30 mph a child v car collision has an over 80% probability of fatal outcome. Sobering stuff eh? Stick to the limit, the child is unscathed, exceed it by 10 mph, the child probably dies.

Peter Hester: Taking another scenario, if one was to take a corner at 40mph when the limit point would indicate that it should be taken at 30mph and there was a solid obstruction that we had to stop for (e.g. farmer’s tractor and trailer parked where we could not see it on the approach to the bend) then we would hit this object at 30mph. In this instance a look at the Euro NCAP tests* for the vehicle being driven would show what our chances of survival were. I would suggest they might be minimal - a sobering thought!

A not infrequent occurrence on our Cornish roads: a wide load was coming (yet another caravan for Polzeath) and the police had asked us to pull over to make way for it. A farmer in his van (well it looked like a farmer’s van) carried on blithely down the road with not a care in the world. A sounding of the horn was not heeded, so on went the siren, still he took no notice. The police car went rapidly into reverse and chased him down the road backwards - in a good straight line, too. We carried on to do our shopping. When we came back about an hour later, the farmer and his van were still beside the hedge! Wonder if he got home for tea...

CAM
Orchard Cottage
Greenwith Road
Perranwell Station
Truro TR3 7LX

Sounds futuristic doesn’t it, but there are two technologies which, if combined, would render speed limits a thing of the past.

Automatic speed limiting
Prestige models of some cars already have a manual speed limiter that you can set from a lever on the steering column, which allows you to drive normally but not exceed the speed that you have set. The technology exists to do this automatically via satellite navigation systems. Your vehicle would automatically be speed limited to whatever the limit was for the area in which you were travelling.

Distance sensing
Again, the technology already exists and is fitted to some prestige vehicles which slows you down if you are getting too close to the vehicle in front when going at speed and keeps you a safe distance from the vehicle in front.

Combine these two technologies and you render conventional speed limits redundant!

Knock on effects
¨ Street furniture would be reduced.
¨ There would be no need for any of the speed limit signs that abound.
¨ Motorway speed limits could be abolished. You could be free to travel as fast as your vehicle is capable on motorways, as you would automatically be slowed down as you approached other traffic.
¨ When there was heavy motorway traffic there would be no need for the speed control systems such as on the M25, as the system would be self-regulating.
¨ Police manpower requirements would be reduced, as there would no longer be any speeding motorists!
¨ There would be a significant loss of income to the exchequer from speeding fines.
¨ Finally Gatsos could be scrapped!

The Left Turner - Generally middle-aged onwards and predominantly male.

Actions - Approaches a junction to turn left into the major road that you are on. Sees you coming (most likely making eye contact) and stops. Then appears to suffer short-term memory loss and pulls out when you are almost upon him.

Subsequent Action - Will then proceed in front of you going at least 5 mph below the applicable speed limit for that stretch of road.

The Young Mum with Pram - You could be old enough to be her parent!

Actions - An example of attempted multi-functional activity. May be thinking of being late for school/job, what food to buy in and a host of other things whilst gesticulating to friends across the street and talking on her mobile ‘phone. Subsequently pushes baby in pushchair out into the road between parked cars in the manner of a knight at a mediaeval jousting competition.

Subsequent Action - May then spend several minutes with offside rear door of car open whilst loading baby back into car.

I’m often asked what is meant by riding defensively. Many riders seem to think it means being over-cautious, negative and generally acting like a shrinking violet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Certainly defensive riding means being aware of one’s own vulnerability, but it also means developing a high level of awareness of one’s environment in relation to other traffic and road hazards.

A motorcycle with its small size, good acceleration, powerful brakes and relatively elevated riding position gives a motorcyclist a great advantage in spotting hazards and dealing with them before they become dangerous. Either by reducing speed or perhaps by using the machine’s acceleration, we can get through a situation before it develops. This means adopting a positive attitude to riding, but never to the extent where over-confidence overrides one’s capabilities or becomes aggressiveness, which can be tantamount to bullying other road users. This can have a negative effect on how other drivers respond to all other riders. By all means stamp your authority on situations but always in the nicest possible way.

Relaxed Cornering

Wednesday 26 May Carnon Downs Village Hall
Alan Cottle, paramedic

Tuesday 29 June Truscotts Helston
Outside event

Tuesday 28 September Lychgate, Kenwyn
Bob Heayll, Road Safety Unit

Wednesday 27 October Hawkins Motors, St Stephens
Chief Superintendent Ellis

Tuesday 30 November AGM Hawkins Motors, St Stephens
Polly Tatum - a visit to the Galàpagos Islands

Provisional dates for next year’s group meetings
26 January
26 April
28 September
22 February
25 May
25 October
30 March
28 June
30 November AGM

Regional Liaison Forum in 2004:
1 February in Dorchester, 28 June in Bath and 25 October in Bournemouth