South Meath Driving School

Flat batteries account for about 30% of all breakdowns according to the Automobile Association. In the main those batteries are old and in need of replacement. Internal lighting or sidelights left on for long periods will also run down the battery. I know of one gentleman who parked up his Mercedes for a month in the winter of 2010, while he holidayed Down Under. While he was having Christmas dinner on Bondi Beach, his Merc was struggling silently with -17.5 degrees of frost here. The seizure the car suffered, adequately matched that of its owner on his return. It cost him the price of another holiday or, maybe one could say that it was then his car’s turn to go Down Under!

In the distant past, there was no problem using jump leads for any car that stalled. That has all changed. Consult the car handbook and if specific procedures are to be followed, then the manufacturer’s guidelines must be taken into account. The AA advises that jumpstarting a vehicle is a safe procedure but that it can be dangerous if performed incorrectly and a step by step guide is suggested here –

• Drivers should keep metal objects away from the top of the car battery – rings, watch straps, hand tools etc. just brushing a battery post can cause a massive spark, possibly exploding the car’s battery and releasing the acid.
• Drivers should never attempt to jump-start a car battery that is leaking or looks damaged – an explosion could result.
• Drivers should avoid smoking or naked flames – car batteries give off flammable gases and an explosion could result.
• Drivers should keep their hands well away and avoid loose fitting clothing – with the vehicle’s engine running it’s easy to get caught-up and seriously injured on moving parts.
• Jump leads must be in good condition – damaged conductors or clamps can result in overheating and even fire.

Step by step

Before connecting leads to your car make sure the vehicles are the same voltage and parked with their handbrakes on and ignition off. The vehicles must not touch as this can cause sparks or an explosion.

1. Use the red jump lead to connect the positive terminal of the donor vehicle’s good battery to the positive terminal of the flat battery.
2. Then use the black lead to connect the negative terminal of the good car battery to a suitable earthing point on the engine or chassis of the other vehicle. This earthing point must be away from the battery and vehicle’s fuel system.
3. With both leads connected wait three minutes for the voltages to equalize before starting either car’s engine.
4. Start the engine of the donor car and allow it to run for a minute, then while still running, start the engine of the other car and leave both running at a fast idle for ten minutes. Don’t remove the jump leads while the cars’ engines are running as this can cause serious damage to the electronics on either car.
   If the jump leads get hot, avoid a possible fire by switching off both vehicles’ engines and allow the leads to cool.
5. Turn off the ignition on both cars and then disconnect the leads carefully in the reverse order to the way they were connected to the cars. Be careful not to touch the clips against each other or the car bodywork.
6. Start the car that had the dead battery using its own battery power. If it won’t start there could be a more serious problem that’ll need investigating by a professional.

 If all that advice doesn’t get you on the road, stick with the High Nellie.

Of late our concerns were the politicians and bankers undoing of young and old; then the change of the guard brought new household charges; now it’s the turn of the diesel and petrol prices at the pumps to create the most recent rage. How much more can the man and woman in the street take? Jesus, I do not know. The last Government are out long enough now for us to have almost forgotten them, though some say they will be remembered for what they did when Cromwell is long forgotten. Remember, too, that the FF outfit hit the litre of petrol three times adding 17 cent for our pleasure.

Petrol and diesel have now got a similar price tag, averaging around 155 cent per litre, though local garages see fit to exceed that price.

Petrol has increased by 7 cent in the last month. Of that 7c, 2.4c is attributable to the VAT increase of 2% on Jan 1^st. The Euro has weakened against the US dollar and there has been a wholesale increase due to some change in the way the wind is blowing in the Middle East.

The Finance Dept. obviously sought to increase their take through those increases, but during the past year consumption is down 7%. The motorist just cannot afford such purchases at penal prices, and once more the State calculated incorrectly, scoring a fine own goal.

Running a motor car is no luxury, no more than owning a lorry or any commercial vehicle. There is a loss of disposable income from those horrendous increases that will have an adverse affect on nearly every household.

You may not have known that there has been an increase in ‘Carbon Tax.’ Something tells me that other fuels like turf and coal are excluded from this tax. At least that will enable Ming Flanagan to continue his consumption of what he believes is good for him. Good for him!

Yes, the carbon tax has accounted for about 4 cent of this increase between the Budget and VAT increase. So Noonan and Kenny are our most recent Eco warriors to come on the scene. When a real ecology-conscious gentlemen, like JP Fay who lived up a tree for months, protesting at the M3 being constructed too close to the Hill of Tara, there was no sign of Noonan or any of his retinue.  Their interest is not quite the preservation of Carbon matter, rather it is just a mean, slithery way of collecting taxes. Ray Butler T.D., let your colleagues know what  the majority of decent people think of all this. Tell the local people who have to drive to Dublin, Dundalk or wherever, to work that the hike in petrol prices is aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. Tell the shopkeeper, too, that it has resulted in there being less money available to purchase newspapers or the box of cornflakes.

Noonan’s scalpel didn’t finish there for the motorist. Car tax is to increase. The lower emission cars in Band A and B face the greater hikes of 56eur and 69eur respectively. The main reason for this is that 70% of new car sales in the last few years were in those bands. Practically all new cars are in the ultra low emission bracket and this is the ‘reward’ from our Government for all those who made the purchase recently. No wonder people have stopped blessing themselves when passing the church.

In a word, for those who pay their taxes religiously, just remember that when you buy that litre of petrol or diesel that our good State is taking about 60% of the overall price. It’s enough to make a sloath’s veins pump.

The penalty points system was introduced ten years ago in Ireland and it frightened the day lights out of us drivers at its inception. For weeks we crawled around wondering if life would ever be the same again behind the wheel. There were very few crashes in that new era – then complacency crept back in and there was a partial return to the older, lesser values. The intervening years, though, show that there has been around the 50% reduction in road deaths which is remarkable. They all said the Irish wouldn’t succumb to all those restrictions that the Dempseys and Varadkars might throw at us, let alone higher up moguls out in Brussels and Munich.

Around one third of motorists here have received penalty points, ranging from two upwards. Half a million stuck on the two, obviously realising that a repeat transgression might mean higher insurance costs or getting on the ladder to disqualification altogether, on reaching twelve points. That feat was achieved by a mere 138 motorists. They will remember the cost in the loss of their wheels and a further rebuke from their insurance company in the times ahead.

Changing driver behaviour was never going to be achieved overnight. The current generation of young drivers were probably the greater critics of their parents’ ill-gotten habits of the ‘60s and ‘70s. As much as we may criticise the young drivers of today, it is my opinion that they are ‘miles’ ahead when it comes to road competency. Then, why shouldn’t they be so? There wasn’t much about driving on the curriculum in St. Michael’s or the ‘Tech’ 40 years past. Education is power, they always said, and so it has proven. Yet, youngsters can never escape the awful fact that in the category of 16 to 25 year olds, they accounted for 38% of road deaths last year. Stark.

The GoSafe vans that mount speed traps at various locations throughout the land have proven a great deterrent for speeding motorists. There’s one regularly perched along the road between Bective and Navan. This week such was the case. Though using my driving school car, with all the signs displayed, I got many friendly reminders from motorists that there could be trouble ahead. It came in the form of a headlight flash. Sure enough, GoSafe was in place. The question is, did those who ‘flashed’ realise that it could amount to a criminal offence and face prosecution in Court? It is to do with interfering with the course of Justice! And you can’t do that, even Pat Shortt knows. You might argue that it would be awfully mean of one not to flash his mother-in-law and tell her that the speed trap was up ahead. Be sensible, don’t defeat a noble purpose.

There’s good news for the Learner Driver involved in the ‘graduated driving licence’  (GDL) scene. The proposed GDL was launched with plenteous publicity and caused many a Leaving Cert student some sleepless hours. It has now been watered down vastly from that initial stance. Out of all the claptrap of zero alcohol levels, night curfew, restricted driving after passing the first of two tests etc., what remains is the greater substance, at least. That is the Essential Driver Training programme and the reduced alcohol level of 20mg. There is due to be a review of the EDT programme, probably later this year, which may merely change the format of the 12 lessons, or there may be more compulsory lessons.

With the death rate on our roads now reduced to less than 190 last year, it is a great challenge to keep the downward trend in train. The momentum is there and, as Willie stated,

‘There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.’