Harrassment Of Learner Drivers Is A Concern On Our Roads

Ike Vavi
Correspondent | Monday August 23, 2010 00:00

Another car suddenly approaches from the back. The driver of the approaching car suddenly opens the car window. He opens his mouth and shouts, 'You are delaying us! This is not a driving school! Go and learn how to drive before you attempt to drive in town. You are wasting our time!' After hurling these insults, the 'qualified' driver speeds away in a hurry. The learner and the instructor are stunned.

The learner immediately looses focus. The car engine fails once, twice and for the third time. The sounds of car horns are now piercing through the air. The instructor has no choice. He immediately opens the door and moves over to the drivers seat to take control of the car to save the learner more frustration and confusion.

This is some form of initiation that driving school learners and their instructors have to go through on many occasions as they go through their paces.

Bokani Mudongo of Maitengwe who is a learner driver confirms this. 'The behaviour of some drivers is disappointing and disturbing. Learner drivers expect to learn a lot from 'professional' drivers. Unfortunately that is not the case. They are subjected to verbal abuse from the same drivers who are supposed to be helping them,' she complains.

She agues that it is frustrating that some drivers ignore the significance of the 'L' sign that usually decorates cars or vehicles that are driven by learner drivers. 'For some drivers, the 'L 'sign has no significance. They perceive learner drivers as more of an inconvenience and destructors on the road that anything else. That is why if a learner driver is driving slowly or makes a mistake they will get crucified through unpalatable remarks coupled with swearing,' she contends.

She maintains that the lack of cooperation from other drivers and the harassment that learner drivers and their instructors are sometimes subjected to on the roads discourage some people from learning to drive. 'Some learners end up quitting as they become fed up with the harassment they receive from other drivers. Others get so irritated and afraid that they decide to call it a day,' she says.

Christina Ronny of Sebina, a driving instructor is also concerned about the intimidation and harassment they are  subjected to when teaching learner drivers. 'Some drivers unfortunately forget that they were once learners themselves. They forget that regardless of your years of driving experience, any driver was at one point a learner. If all the drivers can appreciate this fact, they will be able to respect and most importantly assist the learners instead of undermining them,' she says. She argues that such kind of behaviour negatively affect learner drivers. 'Some learner drivers have decided to take indefinite breaks because of this kind of behaviour. Others get confused when all of a sudden car horns are all over the place. We now have to do serious counselling for them to actually help them forget or ignore such incidents. It is unfortunate that these drivers ignore the fact that driving requires concentration and that the importance of that in so far as learner drivers are concerned cannot be overemphasised. Unfortunately some drivers decide to be destructors to these learners through their behaviour,' she laments.

She says that it must be appreciated that learner drivers cannot be taught driving in isolated areas. 'They need to be given enough training on the very same roads that they will be using once they get qualified. There is no way we can take them to quiet places where the flow of traffic is minimum. It must be borne in mind they are going to use the same busy roads that are used by anyone else and therefore it is imperative that we give them the relevant and necessary exposure by training them on those roads,' she explains.

She appealed to drivers to be more patient and tolerant as that can be the only way of solving this problem of learner drivers' harassment in our roads. 'Drivers need to appreciate the significance of an 'L' on a car. The best assistance they can offer the learner drivers is giving them a chance to learn. They should not compete with the learner drivers but help them. This can only happen if they are patient with the learner drivers,' she pleads.