The driving test centre in Dock View Road, Barry was closed back in March last year but it looks to reopen just in time for Christmas.

Students and instructors alike will be pleased with the news as there was widespread opposition when the decision was made to close the centre.

We wrote previously about ‘Driving Test Centres’ Facing The Axe’ and them using private firms as delegated examiners at a variety of locations including supermarket car parks, leisure centres and other venues. This is the proposed plan for the Barry test centre. The DSA (Driving Standards Agency) has negotiated a 12-month licence on the property and intents to have it open under the “Taking Tests to the Customer” scheme.

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Young male drivers are facing insurance premiums nearly four times more expensive than the average driver, research has suggested.
The 17 to 20-year-old age group has seen an 8.2% annual rise in premiums, comparison website Confused.com said.
The Commons Transport Committee was told young motorists believe they are being priced off the road.
Trading standards officers are warning drivers not to cut costs when buying their first car.
PremiumsThe average price of a premium for a 17 to 20-year old man in the third quarter of the year was £3,878 when insured as the only driver, Confused.com said.
The average price for male drivers in total was £1,006, the price comparison website said.
For women, the average was £2,063 for 17-20 year olds, compared with £907 for women overall.
In general, the cost of comprehensive motor insurance had risen by 12.3% year-on-year, with dr

More councils are funding the pass plus scheme for young drivers. Cumbria is the latest council to plough £30,000 funding into the scheme, which will allow people aged between 17 and 20 who have recently passed their practical test to take part.

The pass plus scheme is invaluable post-test training, which enables new drivers to learn new skills, techniques and improve their anticipation and alertness.

The course consists of six modules, some aspects may be covered in theory only depending on the conditions at the time. The practical assessment is not as difficult as the learner test, it is only required that a pupil is able to drive safely and legally, small errors will not matter greatly.

At the end of the course, a certificate is awarded. The instructor will complete the form and outline whether the pupil has covered each module to an achieved or exceeded standard.

Emily Smith at Britannia Driving School said: “The experience is fantastic especially taking lessons on the motorway. Why not call Britannia today and enquire about our pass plus courses on 0208 543 8050.”

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Car insurance has many factors that lower your premiums after a certain age. Quotes often become cheaper after the driver turns 30 years old. However, the main factor is their driving record.
Most drivers will see an insurance rate drop at 25 with preferred discounts that can reduce their premium cost per month.
Although at any given age, a policyholder can see an instant rate reduction, prices are not based on age, but on the amount of years they’ve been licensed. For example, a 25-year-old who just got their license and purchases a policy are more likely to be quoted a higher rate than someone younger, say 22, who has been driving since the age of 16.
Once a driver hits three years licensed, they usually get a discount, since they can qualify for a “good driver discount” given that their license is clean, meaning no violations. If there is something to look forward to as a young driver, hitting three years licensed should be it. Auto insurance can significantly go down with the application of a good driver discount since it can range in the area of 20 percent.
So does it really get cheaper for your car? Each provider is different, and you can get lower rates based on your driving experience. It really doesn’t have anything to do with how old you are, but how safe of a driving record you have.

The U.K. government should halve the amount lawyers receive for administering motor insurance claims for personal injury to control rising claims expenses, according to former Home Secretary Jack Straw.
“What we’ve got is unnecessary costs riding in the system,” Straw told Parliament’s Transport Committee today. Removing 600 pounds ($938) from the 1,200 pounds lawyers receive for processing claims would reduce “fat” in the industry, which has caused premiums to rise to record levels, he said.
Car insurers, claims management firms and brokers have been blamed by members of Parliament including Straw, for selling information about customers to no-win no-fee lawyers and car- rental firms, who then pursue claims from rival insurance companies. While the number of accidents has dropped, claims have risen, driving premiums up.
Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly said last month he intends to ban referral fees as part of an overhaul of the legal system. Straw, who has campaigned for the changes since June, wants the government to go further and reduce lawyers’ profits.
Insurers, lawyers and claims-management firms introduced a database last year to process personal injury claims known as the Road Traffic Accident Portal system. Straw said the system, which entitles lawyers to 1,200 pounds in administration fees, also helps fuel spurious claims. In Germany, lawyers are paid 300 euros ($409), according to the Association of British Insurers, the industry lobby group.
Dysfunctional System
U.K. insurers and brokers make about 800 pounds for referring each customer, meaning the practice made them about 320 million pounds in the past year, according to personal injury law firm Spencers Solicitors Ltd.
The ABI in November called the claims system “dysfunctional” because insurers help fuel a compensation culture that has forced the industry into an underwriting loss on motor insurance each year since 1996.
The amount paid in claims by insurance companies rose 28 percent to 10.3 billion pounds in 2010, according to data compiled by the ABI. The number of accidents on British roads fell 18 percent to 154,414 from 2006 to 2010, according to the Department for Transport.
That prompted the price of comprehensive motor insurance to soar 40 percent to about 900 pounds in the 12 months to March, according to the Automobile Association Ltd.’s Shoparound Index, which tracks the cheapest quotes.

A bus driver from Trowbridge has been sentenced to over two years in prison after he hit a 6 year old and his mother.

Mrs Connor and her six year old son Finlay had crossed the road opposite his school and walked between a car and the bus. In an unfortunate twist of fate, the car speed off and the bus driver then proceeded to pull forward and hit both Mrs Connor and her son resulting in her son’s death.

Shortly after Finlay’s death the courts heard the bus driver Mr Shearing, say the brakes had failed on the bus however, the bus had been checked and no defects were found.

His barrister said he is ‘an ordinary, hardworking family man, with no previous convictions’. It is believed that Mr Shearing suffered “sudden acceleration syndrome”, when the driver mistakenly presses the accelerator instead of the brake and can’t understand why the vehicle won’t stop.

He expressed his deepest sympathies to the family. The judge said it was an error of judgement however, the consequences come very high, a life has been lost and you must bear the responsibility.

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Texting or emailing while driving doubles reaction time and makes drivers more likely to miss a flashing light, according to new research.
In a small study, researchers at Texas A&M University’s Texas Transportation Institute studied the impact of texting in an actual driving environment.
“Essentially texting while driving doubles a driver’s reaction time,” said Christine Yager, who led the study.
“That makes a driver less able to respond to sudden roadway dangers.”
In the study, 42 drivers between the ages of 16 and 54 drove on a 17-kilometre test course while sending or receiving text messages, and again while focusing completely on the road.
The researchers asked the drivers to stop when they saw a flashing yellow light and recorded their reaction time.
The typical reaction time without texting was between one and two seconds, but while texting it increased to three to four seconds, regardless of whether the driver was typing or reading a text.
The researchers also found that a texting driver was 11 times more likely to miss the flashing light.
“The act of reading and writing a text message are equally impairing and equally dangerous,” she said.
The lag in reaction times was greater than in an earlier study conducted in a lab simulator.
Yager explained that the three to four second lag time is significant because at highway speeds a driver can travel the length of a football field in that time.
Texting drivers in the study were also more likely to swerve in their lane.
“We had participants strike barrels, and it is very scary to think that this is happening on our public roadways,” said Yager, adding the findings also apply to other distractions such as checking emails and Facebook.
Government statistics show distracted driving contributes to as much as 20 per cent of all fatal crashes. Cellphones are the main distraction.
Text messaging while driving is banned in 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. An additional seven states ban texting while driving for some motorists, such as those under 18 or bus drivers.

We all try and do our bit for the environment and with technology advancing it should be easy to reduce our carbon footprint when driving, but this doesn’t help us reduce our costs.

Most drivers cannot afford to buy a new car which is fitted out with all the latest technology. So much so that 6.8 million used cars were sold last year in comparison to just 2 million new cars.

Owners of older vehicles are being penalised and are charged much more road tax then new ‘green’ cars. But this does not seem a valid reason for charging more…as a ‘green’ car driven badly can be just as bad as a ‘non-green’ car that’s driven well.

The government are trying to encourage drivers to purchase new cars with the scrappage scheme, but it seems to end there are charging those who can’t afford to buy a new car a higher excise duty does not seem fair or a way of tackling the environmental problems our planet faces.

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A DEAF driver was “going too fast” when he lost control of his car and crashed it into a tree, killing his back seat passenger, a jury was told.
Stephen Hocknell had been driving home from work with his two pals, local footballer Callum MacKinnon and Peter Hayes, when he went too fast into a bend on a country road, Oxford Crown Court heard.
The 21-year-old, from Carterton, denies causing death by careless driving.
Despite hitting the brakes and frantically trying to steer the Citroen C3, it span out of his control and slammed side-on into a tree on September 7 last year.
Hocknell, who suffers profound deafness, and front-seat passenger Mr Hayes escaped with minor injuries, but Mr MacKinnon, 18, suffered the full impact.
Roger Coventry, prosecuting, told how Mr MacKinnon had been in the back seat on the left-hand side of the car as they drove back from the Burford Garden Centre, along the B4020 Shilton Road.
He said: “Stephen Hocknell drove carelessly. How was he careless? He drove too fast for the road, too fast for the type of car that he had.”
Investigators were unable to pinpoint the speed at which Hocknell had been driving but said skid marks showed he had been travelling ‘excessively fast’.
The trial continues.

The Highways Agency has introduced a strategy which is thought to save 810 tonnes of CO2 a year, and they plan to do this by removing motorway lights.

Since 2009, 14 stretches of motorway across the UK has seen their lights switched off between the hours of midnight and 5am and evidence so far indicated that this has had no impact on road safety.

The latest stretch of road to lose its lights is the M1, between junctions 10 and 13. The lights are being permanently removed, but the agency ensures drivers that slip-roads and junctions will stay well lit.

There has been some debate over the plans however, Steve Garrod – DIA group manager said “Headlights are better than ever and as long as signs stay well lit there should be no problems.”

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