Creating Material (Unit7: P5)

Article First draft
A 17 year old has been involved in a road rage incident causing them to be hospitalised and in a critical condition. Young Harry Smith was driving along the road in Edmonton town centre during his driving lesson when some impatient driver decided to over take him on a corner causing him to crash into an oncoming vehicle. This lead Harry to do an emergency stop as he panicked and him and his driving instructor decided to get out and check if everyone was ok and the impatient driver took a swing at poor young Harry leaving him knocked out and bleeding. The impatient driver then drove off while an ambulance was called by the instructor and now the authorities are searching for this impatient driver to give him the proper sentence he deserves.

We chatted to harry who is now recovering from that major incident and here's what he tells us.
'All I was doing was sticking to the speed limit and driving safely and this man in a huge 4x4 decides to over take me on the corner. I was in shock when I saw the crash that I emergency stopped and both me and my instructor got out the car to check if everyone was ok. Thankfully no one was hurt at that time but when I turned around the impatient driver shouted at me and called me a stupid learner which knocked my confidence a lot and I just felt really small. then his hand made a fist and he punched me multiple times till I woke up in Edmonton hospital feeling really ill. The worst bit about all this is that this man was obviously a learner once and he forgets that we are only trying our best but that L plate turns people into monsters when they see it." When we asked if he has any words towards the impatient driver Harry said "Please learn from what you have done as this has knocked my confidence greatly and I really feel that from this I cant go back on the roads as a learner for the fear I might end up in a state like this again".

From Harrys tragic accident we conducted a survey and asked 30 people ages 17-35 about how they feel on the road as a learner. 50% of them have had bad experiences on the road as learners with cases of being over taken dangerously, being shouted at, and people just acting like lunatics as soon as they see the L plate on the car. This shows that a majority of learner drivers experience an incident with impatient road users. Now from the survey no one experienced as bad of an experience as poor young Harry here however if we don't change our behaviour towards learner drivers we could end up with more cases like harry and young people could end up being injured in hospital for only trying their best!

The driving company Marmalade have decided to take action on this and recorded statistics on abuse learner drivers receive. 91% of learners will have people over taking them which can be so dangerous especially in a case like Harrys when they cant wait and do it on a corner. 77% of driving instructors  receive regular abuse when teaching students and 31% receiving it on a daily basis. 90% of drivers tailgate learner drivers. 66% of learners receive abusive hand gestures and 49% have experienced verbal abuse. These numbers are huge and marmalade have decided to take action against these drivers and appeal to have some sort of punishment if they are abusive towards learners. This could be punishments such as a minimum fine of £100 or 3 penalty points on their licence. We feel that this would be best to stop this abusive behaviour as if sanctions are in place less people will do it as they don't want these on their licence as if they get 12 points they could get their licence taken away and then be in the place of a learner again.

Going back to Harrys Tragic incident we spoke to his Driving instructor who witnessed everything that happened at the scene and called the ambulance. He stated; "This was the worse case I had ever seen. it all went so quickly but to go for a child like that is absolutely horrendous. I agree with marmalades ideas and I have signed the petition after seeing this to get Penalties for those who are giving abuse to learners they deserve it as they were all learners once and I cant believe they have forgotten that even those who haven't been driving for years and years. The guy who punched Harry could of only bee 30 ish It really Grinds my gears" we asked him if he's going to try and find this was his response "I want to find him and ensure he has a good understanding of what he did and how it affected people especially Harry who feels he cant do another lesson incase something like this happens again. Its honestly so upsetting to see one of my students in a state like this".

To fix this issue we need to sign the petition that gets abusive drivers penalties for acting so vile towards learners. All they are doing is trying their best to be like everyone else on the roads however when lunatics throw them off and make learners feel uncomfortable and like they cant do it is really a shame so by going onto marmalades website and signing the petition its one step closer to having charges against these horrible lunatics making the roads unsafe for people. Remember we were all learners once.