Driving instructor spent an entire lesson watching a movie on his phone

Ken Foxe

A driving instructor spent an entire lesson watching a movie on his phone while another teacher tailgated a car, flashed the vehicle’s lights, and gestured at another motorist, according to complaints to the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

The RSA said they had been contacted by more than 160 unhappy learner drivers last year about the quality of driving lessons and instruction.

One person accused their instructor of using a racial slur, making sexualised comments, and joking about ‘Women’s Aid’ for “battering [his] car.”

A copy of their complaint claimed the teacher had said: “‘Watch that hand or I’ll have a case against you,’ implying that I had nearly touched him inappropriately, which I absolutely had not.”

Another learner wrote of receiving threatening text messages from an instructor who said they were going to report them for driving without insurance.

They added: “A girl has also come out to me saying he would be talking about other girls during driving lessons talking about private body parts with his clients.”

One resident wrote about repeated issues with a driving instructor parking on a footpath and “continually obstructing” people.

“This is who is teaching our young to drive,” they said. “Worrying to say the least.”

Of the 161 total complaints, 46 were about conduct or behaviour while 25 related to payment of money or fees.

There were 21 complaints about the overall quality of training and another 21 about routes or lessons.

A further 31 learners complained their lessons were not uploaded correctly to an online portal for driver testing, according to RSA records released under FOI.

Another person complained of a driving instructor who, after a dozen lessons, suddenly started to act in a “rude and very agitated manner.”

They explained: “She even tried to induce me to make a mistake at the beginning of today's class, where she asked me to drive through dangerous traffic at a T-junction.”

The complaint added that at the end of one lesson, they were left “in the rain in a parking lot far from [their] house.”

Another wrote of being brought straight out onto a dual carriageway on their first lesson even though they didn’t know which pedal did what in the car.

An email said: “From the very first lesson, he was constantly on his phone not paying attention to the road or what I was doing.”

That was one of a number of complaints about instructors overusing mobiles during lessons.

A separate complaint said: “The instructor was watching a movie on his phone. [He] was stuck to his screen.”

One person wrote about how their lesson was interrupted, supposedly for a toilet break.

However, the instructor “returned with hot food that smelled strongly of fish and chips.”

The complaint said: “This was extremely unprofessional, but I continued the lesson at the time. In the second lesson, he again arrived late and asked me to pull into a car park.

“I assumed this was to practise manoeuvres, but instead he said he was going to get a coffee and left me sitting alone in the car for over ten minutes.”

One complaint ran to several pages with a catalogue of issues including the instructor telling the person to drive on the hard shoulder for a lengthy period of time.

They were also told to practise driving with just one hand on the wheel and said they were given contradictory and confusing feedback.

Following one incident, the instructor became extremely angry, and the learner driver decided they would get out of the car.

The complaint alleged: “After I exited, he locked the back door, preventing me from retrieving my mobile phone. When I asked him to unlock it, he refused, stating: ‘You haven’t paid me yet.’”

Asked about the records, the RSA said they had nothing to add.