advanced driver training news from murcotts

Level 1 Defensive Driver Training Program

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Driving over Christmas

Murcotts Managing Director, Mark Lane, talks to Kevin Hillier on Radio RSN 927 AM about country driving and the dangers of drowsiness and fatigue.

Racing Victoria – Odds-On Driver Safety Favourites!

Murcotts continues its proud partnership with Racing Victoria. You don’t have to be a horse racing fan to admire the responsibility and care this organisation shows to its young apprentices. Future stars who we not only wish well in their career, but most importantly, arrive home safely to their families. Great leadership shown by Racing Victoria.

ENGINE ON PHONE OFF – GOING THE EXTRA MILE

Engine On Phone Off is a higher level driver risk management policy than prevailing road safety law across Australia. Such a policy eliminates the risk of distraction to drivers altogether whereas permitting a mobile phone to be used, subject to compliance with it mounting in a proprietary cradle and non-touching by the driver, still creates a visual and cognitive distraction. Taking your eyes off the road to look at a phone for just 2 seconds doubles your chance of a crash.

Some studies of eye and head movement tracking show increased risk of crashing as high [ read more ]

Driver Training for Road Trauma Recovery

More drivers are seeking help following road trauma events.

Vehicle crashes and road trauma can seriously impact the mental health of those involved or affected. Some people ignore the symptoms of their emotional injuries from road trauma or they don’t connect their emotional trauma to the event. Some people find it difficult to drive a vehicle again without experiencing severe anxiety.

During road trauma events your body floods your system with adrenaline to allow it to cope but when these chemicals wear off, some people will suffer from ongoing mental anguish including:

[ read more ]

Discrimination of Older Drivers

Recent road crashes involving older drivers again prompts calls for introducing medical and driving tests. There has also been the suggestion that senior drivers should display an "S" plate to warn other motorists.

None of these ideas has anything to do with road safety, it's just ageist discrimination.

Even the statistics can be misleading. The facts are that many fatalities of older road users involve pedestrians and passengers. Lumping these together with older driver deaths distorts the picture.

Of course as we get older health issues will affect [ read more ]

We won’t drive with CHOH

By Mark Kelly General Manager - Operations

Imagine a friend offered you a drink - a volatile, flammable, colourless liquid described as a powerful psychoactive drug, also used in modern thermometers. You would probably say “no thanks”.

What if that friend persisted and described the liquid substance as having a molecular formula is C2H5OH, an empirical formula is C2H6O, an alternative notation is CH3–CH2–OH, which indicates that the carbon of a methyl group (CH3–) is attached to the carbon of a methylene group ( [ read more ]

Murcotts Supports Neighbourhood Watch

What do Murcotts Driving Excellence and Neighbourhood Watch have in common?

Both organisations recognise the value of RISK PREVENTION for safe communities.

It follows that people who adopt Neighbourhood Watch safety and security principles would want to extend them to safety on our roads.

Prevention of crime is a proactive strategy and so is the prevention of road crashes and trauma. It involves the same thinking and decision making. Doing things that avoids crime or crashes is a smart investment compared to the costly and emotionally draining demands of picking up the [ read more ]

MURCOTTS CALLS FOR POLITICIANS TO TAKE A FRONT SEAT ON TRAINING OF LEARNER DRIVERS

Australia’s largest Defensive Driving Program provider, Murcotts Driving Excellence, has applauded Premier Dan Andrews, for promoting driver education and training for all Victorian Year 10 students.

However, it has sounded a note of caution about implementing a program without first consulting organisations that will be tasked with delivering these programs to Learner drivers.

Murcotts’ Managing Director, Geoff Thomas, says that while it is important for politicians to show leadership on issues such as young driver education and road safety, it is also important not to set up expectations about program delivery until [ read more ]

Murcotts announce training program for volunteer drivers in the not for profit sector

Murcotts is proud to announce a training program for volunteer drivers in the not for profit sector.

We have been working with our long term client, Eastern Palliative Care (EPC), in delivering a number of programs including Safe Driving Workshops and also Accident/Crash Investigation.

[ read more ]

Green means stop. Red means go.

How many times have you been frustrated when, at a green traffic light, the right turning car in front of you won’t go – apparently waiting for the green arrow? Pretty common hey?

To make matters worse, if you toot your horn you’ll be accused of being a road rager or just rude and impatient. You just can’t win.

Well, it may be that it isn’t entirely the driver’s fault - that they read the traffic lights this way. In fact, this is [ read more ]

Drowsiness: Excessive tiredness or sleepiness

Tiredness can be simply a matter of an over-busy lifestyle, or it may be the symptom of a serious medical condition. Note that for tired symptoms, it is important to specify whether they are from lack of sleep (see drowsiness), or whether they refer to physical or muscular tiredness (see fatigue or weakness). In some cases, these two categories may overlap or cause each other.

Virtually everyone is at risk of drowsy driving, especially those who are deprived of sleep, driving long distances without rest breaks, driving through the night or at other times when they are [ read more ]