If I could, I would give up driving because it’s too damn dangerous!

Some of you might recall that I recently had to attend a speed awareness course. The first question I was left asking myself was: “How have I driven here for nearly 18 years while knowing so little?”

I probably shouldn’t admit this publicly, but I was shocked at what I didn’t know.

Legal speed was the first thing.

Obviously if there is a sign ordering or suggesting that you go a certain speed you do. But in this country the open road sign doesn’t tell you what to do so I made it up – and have been completely wrong.

I decided it was 40mph for country roads (safe at 20mph), 50 for main roads such as the A596, 60 for dual carriageways and 70 for motorways.

I often wondered why everything on four wheels, or even two wheels or four legs managed to pass me. Now I am also wondering what on earth I was doing at a speeding course!

I am embarrassed writing all this and also ashamed of my ignorance.

I knew to go 30mph (or less if signposted) in a built-up area but I didn’t know that the speed limit existed wherever there were street lights.

I was “caught” when I was coming from a 40mph area into a 30 and didn’t slow down quickly enough. I was still going 35 as I passed the 30 sign.

The idea of going on this course horrified me to the extent that I didn’t sleep the night before.

To be honest, it was one of the best things that ever happened.

The men who took the course were friendly. They weren’t patronising and certainly didn’t treat the 24 of us there as criminals.

But it was what we learned that made an impression. Do you know that, during a 60-minute drive, you are likely to fully concentrate for about 15 minutes? That is hard to believe until you think about how many times have you arrived at your destination and realised that you can’t even remember passing a certain place or landmark.

(Oh – and a message to my husband: One reason for lack of concentration is being distracted by backseat drivers! And don’t try and counteract that because I do not back-seat drive. I only politely point out the driver’s mistakes).

Of course we did cover speed and, here again, I was shocked. I know the job of the instructors is to stop you speeding in the future but showing the difference between stopping at 30mph and just one mile an hour faster was both interesting and frightening.

I was more likely to have an accident on the way home from the course because my eyes were so firmly fixed on the speedometer that I barely looked at the road!

I would never want to do the course again.

But I am kind of glad I went. It was meant to teach speed awareness. In fact it gave me awareness of just how much I didn’t know.