Hazard perception test ‘crucial to road safety’
Road Safety Week, which runs from 17 – 23 November, is held every year to raise awareness of death and injury on the roads, along with the steps that can be taken to improve road safety.
Having received a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for its role in ‘saving hundreds of lives every year’, the hazard perception section of the driving theory test is one of those steps, and could potentially be saving hundreds of lives each year.
Judges of the Prince Michael praised the hazard perception test as being an “outstanding innovation, which had made a considerable improvement to road safety and was well overdue for recognition”.
Adrian Walsh, director of the Prince Michael Road Safety Awards scheme, said: “Although this element of the test is now considered by most candidates as nothing special, its effect in reducing casualties has been significant.”
The hazard perception test also received the John Smart Road Safety Award in June this year, at the 2014 Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) Awards.
Ian McIntosh, chief executive of RED Driving School, said: “The theory test – and the hazard perception test in particular – is a crucial part of road safety, helping learner drivers to understand the rules of the road and how to drive safely and responsibly.”
Around 1.5 million hazard perception tests are taken every year as part of the theory test, with an average pass rate of 85 percent. Research has shown that such training and testing could account for an 11 percent decrease in road traffic accidents.
If you’re thinking of taking driving lessons with RED, be sure to check out our winter special. We’re offering learner drivers six hours of tuition for the price of five, plus free theory and hazard perception test training.
