Learner drivers 'taught by trainees'

One major driving school banned instructors from telling candidates

they were trainees, the AA said.

One learner was told the pink badge which trainees must display was the sign of a top-quality instructor.

And one trainee instructor was instructed to "make things up" if asked about the pink badge, the AA said.

In one case, a 17-year-old on her first-ever lesson was placed with a trainee instructor who, the learner said "was even more nervous than she was". A crash was only averted when the car stalled.

The AA said that up to 75,000 learners have in the last year been

taught by an instructor they did not realise was a trainee.

A recent survey of 2,000 drivers aged 17-29 by research agency Research Now showed that only 2 per cent of learners reckoned they had been taught by a trained person.

But the AA said today that recent figures from the Driving Standards Agency showed that trainees made up more than 14 per cent of all instructors.

An AA/Populus poll last autumn of 13,489 AA members showed that fewer than 0.5 per cent would opt for a trainee instructor if given the choice.

AA president Edmund King has written to Road Safety Minister Mike Penning calling for urgent action to guarantee an informed choice for learners and their parents and to highlight motorists' concerns over the way driving schools use trainees.

Mr King said: "Incredibly, driving schools are not obliged to give you a transparent choice, so many charge as if it's a fully-qualified instructor but give you a trainee. There's a canyon between what learners think they are paying for and what they get."