Drivers taught at home pass the test of time

I WISH to support the idea put forward by John Mallon in his letter headlined ‘How to stop — a key lesson for new drivers’ (Irish Examiner, October 30).

I am one of a family of eight. We were all taught to drive by my father. None of us was required then to do a test, but we had to pass his test.

We began by ‘steering’ while he had the rest of the car in his control. The next test, when control was handed over, was speed of response to his sudden shout — ‘Stop!’ If that was not achieved safely and quickly he would declare: “Any fool can make it move — but very few can stop in time.”

I often quoted this to my own seven children, all of whom are now good drivers taught by my husband and I.

If anyone of us failed the stop test, dad would put us on further probation.

When he was finally satisfied, each of us was presented with a driving licence, usually for our 17th birthday.

He produced eight drivers with roughly an accumulative 400 years of safe driving between us and the skills to pass on to our children.

Maeve T Burke

Abbey

Loughrea

Co Galway