'The phone call every parent dreads - and why looking before you open your car door could save a life'

IT was the phone call every parent dreads. The voice of the school secretary was serious: 'Lizzie's been knocked off her scooter. She's okay, but she's got a nasty bang on her head and her arm is bruised.'
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Cyclists

My heart dropped. This was in Lizzie’s last year of primary school and I had only just allowed her to take the short journey there and back on her own. When I rushed into reception, even the headteacher was waiting there to meet me.

It turned out that a careless parent had opened his car door – in a school-run rush, clearly – and simply not bothered to check if any child, or adult for that matter, was behind him. Poor Lizzie was knocked clean off her scooter.

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The headteacher, not usually given to overt expressions of emotion, took such a staunch view of the carelessness which had potentially put a child in danger that she held a “whole-school assembly” on the matter and sent a special newsletter home warning parents to take better care in future.

I’m sure she will be impressed to hear of Cycling UK’s new campaign which is calling for drivers to be taught the “Dutch reach” way of opening their car door as a mandatory part of the driving test.

Put simply, this means the instead of instinctively using the right hand, the driver has to “reach” over and use their left to open the door.

Try it. You’ll find that it forces you to turn your body around through 90 degrees. As you do so, you can’t help but look and see whether anyone is approaching behind, on foot or on wheels.

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It could be a lifesaver. There is a very serious point to Cycling UK’s crusade. Government figures show that between 2011 and 2015, eight people in the UK

died from carelessly-opened car doors. Three of these had been travelling in cars, but five were cyclists knocked off their bikes.

I hope that the Department for Transport takes serious note. After all, the Secretary of State for Transport himself is no stranger to the dangers of “car-dooring”. The Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP was forced to apologise after opening the driver’s door of his VW Golf in London’s West End last year and sending a chap flying off his bike.

I hope too that this new campaign makes us all think about how we can become more considerate drivers overall. I don’t know if it’s a sign of age, but I am becoming increasingly dismayed by the pure selfishness of my fellow motorists.

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My personal bugbear is tailgating. Not just on the motorway, where it can so quickly turn lethal, but on everyday roads. I’m no driving angel. Over the years, I’ve had three lots of speeding fines and undertaken a speed awareness course. With this in mind, I do now make a point of sticking to the speed limit signs come what may.

What then gives the person behind me the right to attach themselves to my rear bumper in an attempt to make me go faster? I don’t want the humiliation of another traffic offence, or the difficult conversation with my insurance company. Why should I be forced into it by some stranger who clearly doesn’t care about keeping to the law?

Not as dangerous, but just as annoying, is the failure of drivers to indicate on roundabouts. Surely it’s still a test requirement? So why do so many younger motorists regard a simple flick of the indicator to show which exit they are taking as such an onerous task? It’s simple good manners, if nothing else.

We ought to follow the example of drivers in Holland and take a much more thoughtful approach to the whole business.

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The “Dutch reach” is a simple tip. I will be telling everyone, because although driving is the most complex of human operations, involving a colossal combination of concentration, hand-to-eye co-ordination and physical manipulation, sometimes the most simple of things work.

For instance, it is more than a quarter of a century since I eventually passed my own driving test, but I still remember the words of Roy, my instructor. He taught me always to check for the headlights of the car behind me in the rear view mirror when pulling in front on a motorway.

On the hundreds of thousands of motorway miles, I’ve driven since that first “motorway lesson” I have never once forgotten his wise words. It didn’t take a “how-to” video or even a paragraph in a driving manual either.

That said, I suggest that whilst the Department for Transport is mulling over the issue, it should also think about including a new section on courtesy in the practical driving test.

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It costs nothing to wait at a junction instead of pulling out as if we own the road. It takes two seconds to allow a pedestrian to cross in front of us, rather than revving up and powering past in an arrogant huff. Just a bit of care, that’s all it needs to keep our own blood pressure in check and – possibly – save a life.