Mary in the driver’s seat with training academy (13/06/2012)
Mother of four Mary Keohane, from just outside Bantry, was, like so many other thousands of parents, faced with the prospect of her children learning to drive without any real formal training, but she decided to do something about it. “It was my second girl and I was thinking to myself: ‘she’s the height of danger; she’s a lethal weapon without any proper training.’”
So, first off Mary became an Advanced Driving Instructor in her own right, and spent two years researching what it would take to establish a state-of-the-art learning facility where people could properly learn to drive.
Having visited various facilities across Europe, Mary, who is a farmer by profession, decided to utilise some of her land to build a bespoke facility where, in complete safety, people could come along and drive around on a layout which featured each and every type of junction, roundabout and every other potential hazard everyday drivers’ face.
nature, kids are mad and I felt that if they were to get proper driving tuition, then education was the way to go,” Mary says. “And I believe that kids should be learning from the age of about 14 upwards – not simply when they are about to go out on the road.
“And it is not just young people either, I’ve had pensioners coming in to me for lessons because their spouse might have passed away or become incapacitated and they have to learn to drive.”
Mary’s Bantry Driving Academy caters for nascent drivers of all ages and even experienced drivers who might feel their existing skills are not up to the rigours of modern driving.
It took Mary a long time — and considerable amounts of her own money — to get the Academy up and running, but with “a degree in stubbornness” and the assistance of West Cork Development, which helped with the funding, and Spillane Brothers Builders, Mary completed the building of the project on a three acre site in Apr 2011.
As well as normal roads, the facility includes essential items such as filter lanes, roundabouts and yellow box junctions, as well as teaching people how to hill start, how to reverse and parallel park and how to cope with pedestrians and cyclists.
Driving and braking simulators are also on site as well as various static displays aimed at teaching kids about basic mechanics. In addition, Mary’s daughter Fiona, a trained cycling instructor and dietician, is also starting a ‘Bikeability’ programme for cyclists which teaches the lifestyle benefits as well as the essence of safe cycling.
Mary’s efforts have already been recognised by many schools, some of whom even have a learner driver programme on their curriculum, and this is an expanding area of business.
Insurance companies have also taken note and one – AXA – will allow drivers with ten lessons from Mary under their belt a 50% discount for kids going onto their parents’ policy, or will treat them as if they had the test completed if they are taking out their own policy. That, in my view, is an exceptional incentive to look closely at the Academy.
As someone who is constantly frustrated by the standards of driving on Irish roads, I was hugely impressed by the Bantry Driving Academy — and Mary’s vision in creating it — and I only wish facilities such as these were adopted by the licensing authorities and made the norm.
The authorities are constantly harping on about road safety and the need to curtail the loss of life on Irish roads. Were they to insist on proper driver training they would be taking a huge step in the right direction.
