Put to test by a mouse

HONESTLY, there are some real maniacs on the road. Take the other day. In the space of a few minutes, a bus pulled out from a side road right in front of me, a daydreaming saloon driver all but reversed into me, several children ran across my path and a fire engine racing to an emergency nearly squashed me flat.

That's not to mention the numerous motorists who swerved on to the wrong side of the road to avoid parked cars or chicanes. I tell you, at the end of the journey my nerves were shot.

But I didn't react. No outbursts of "gedout the way, airhead" or "who do you think you are, Michael Bleeding Schumacher?"; no abrupt hand signals unlisted by the Highway Code. All I did was to click my mouse acerbically.

For I wasn't in a car, but sitting in a mobile office in pedestrianised Parliament Street, York.

The 'road' was actually video footage played on a computer screen and the whole surreal situation was set up to trial the Driving Standards Agency's new hazard perception test.

The agency runs Britain's driving tests, and it wants to make them harder. Not, you understand, because it is run by sadists, but because they want to save lives.

Each year, 3,600 people are killed on Britain's roads. Improve drivers' hazard perception and casualties will fall, the agency believes.

Hazard perception is the skill to identify, as soon as possible, situations that might require avoiding action, such as changing speed or direction.

It is something most motorists develop after they have passed their test and are driving regularly.

Inexperience shows in the accident statistics. Young drivers between 17 and 21 are involved in 14 per cent of injury accidents, although they make up only seven per cent of licence holders.

Research has shown that new drivers take up to two seconds longer to recognise hazardous situations than more experienced drivers. So training them to be more observant before they get their licence makes sense.

That is where the hazard perception test comes in. It will be introduced late next year and taken at the same time as the theory test, introduced in January 2000. Candidates will have to pass both before they can take the practical.

How does it work? The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has filmed 650 video film clips of real life road scenes from a specially adapted vehicle over the past ten months.

A wide variety of locations around the country have been used, showing different road, weather and traffic conditions.

These clips are now being tried out on volunteers during a national roadshow which ended in York last week.

By the end, 12,000 people will have taken part, in three categories: learners, novices (who passed their test between three months and two years ago) and experienced drivers (what about those who passed between two and ten years ago?).

Carrying out the trials is technology research company QinetiQ, formerly involved in much more hush-hush work as the Government's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.

The results it obtains from the roadshow will be assessed so video film clips can be chosen to create tests of equal difficulty.

Taking the hazard perception test is straightforward. You see the road on the computer as if through a car windscreen. Most of the time it shows those tricky suburban routes. "Most accidents happen close to a person's home," explained Paula Thorpe of the Driving Standards Agency.

All you have to do is click the computer mouse as soon as you spot a potential hazard up ahead. You do not control the speed or direction of the car.

For 20 minutes you travel on a range of roads, negotiating speed humps and chicanes, narrow side streets and hairpin bends. Every few seconds comes another hazard: a vehicle cuts you up or a mum pushes a pram into the road.

Staring so intensely at the video road is hypnotic and I did jump out of my seat when a crazed girl on a bike sped in front of me. The test soon exposed my diminishing powers of concentration, however.

To begin with, I was super-sensitive, clicking away if a leaf looked likely to fall from a roadside tree; but by the end my mind had drifted and I would barely have registered if an elephant parachuted on to the carriageway.

They do not tell you whether you would have passed or failed, which is just as well. But the experience convinced me that testing people's road sense in a safe environment is a good idea. But I would say that. I passed the easier, old-style driving test (at the third attempt) 14 years ago.

Learner driver NINA GARBUTT gives her reaction...

AS a 21-year-old who has recently moved back to my parents' home at Gilling, near Helmsley, life without a driving licence isn't easy. Gilling does not have a shop or post office. Depending on lifts from friends and family soon becomes tiring (for everyone) so I looked to public transport, only to discover you need to drive at least six miles to catch a bus!

I began driving lessons at 18, but after being taught by some less- than-sympathetic instructors, I took a break while at university. Recently I began the learning process again, until I ran out of money and patience. I plan to begin lessons again soon.

Having heard my friends' tales of accidents and near-misses, I am determined to be a confident, safe driver.

So it was interesting for me to take the hazard perception test and learn just how often hair-raising moments occur. It involves looking at the computer screen from a driver's point of view and slowly travelling the road ahead. Each participant must click the mouse to anticipate oncoming hazards. This tests the speed of learner driver's reactions to anticipate when extra caution is needed on the roads.

It is important that learner drivers realise the importance of performing well, not just on the day of their test but in every-day driving situations.

Sound effects such as other traffic, car radio and passers by would have added to the experience, but it is a good insight into just how alert we need to be on the roads.

Updated: 12:02 Wednesday, October 03, 2001