MEMBER PROFILE
“NOW THAT I’M A NATIONAL OBSERVER, I SEE THERE’S A VERY CLEAR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EVERYDAY DRIVING AND THE ADVANCED COURSE” Like father, like son: Chris and Jamie Rodwell have both taken their Advanced driving abilities to the next level by gaining Observer status WORDS RUSSELL CAMPBELL PHOTOGRAPHY JONNY FLEETWOOD
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kills learnt by Advanced motorists don’t just help them; they also rub off on the people around them. That’s certainly the case for 52-yearold Chris, a transport manager from Essex, and his 19-year-old undergraduate son, Jamie, both members of North East London and Essex Advanced Motorists Group. A Ford Fiesta XR2-owning scout leader taught Chris to drive. He says: “One of the scout leaders was going to be made redundant. And he decided that he wanted to teach people to drive. “I was at the right age and had my provisional. He [the scout leader] started with friends as guinea pigs to see if being a driving instructor is what he wanted to do… He charged £10 a lesson. My 13th lesson was my test. And I passed.” Passing at 17, Chris would go on to do Advanced Driver training with help from the same scout leader, with his final test conducted by an irate 6ft 6in former police officer. Chris says: “A lorry cut straight in front of me and cut me up [during 60 /
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the test]. My instructor wasn’t very impressed, so he said to me, ‘Can this car go any faster?’; I had a Morris Marina. We were bundling down the M11 when he started climbing out of the window. And I’m thinking, ‘pinch myself, is this my driving test or what?’ “My instructor started shouting a load of abuse and waving his fist at the lorry driver. He got back in the car, and I pulled in front. And he said, ‘That told him’, or whatever.” Unfortunately, it was a left-hand-drive truck, so the driver likely had heard little of the former lawman’s protestations. As well as an Observer, Chris is also a Class 1 HGV driver and a transport manager, giving him a different perspective on driver training when considering areas like blind spots and stopping distances – knowledge his son Jamie has capitalised on to become an Advanced driver himself. “I didn’t actually know if Jamie had done it [his IAM RoadSmart training] or was doing it. I said to him one day, ‘What are you doing next week?’