Hazard perception and defensive driving
Hazard-perception items show an ordinary street and ask what you should expect or do next. The exam is checking whether you scan far ahead, read other people's intentions, and build in a margin - not whether you can react fast after the danger is already visible.
Scanning and observation
- Look 12–15 seconds ahead, not at the bonnet of the car in front.
- Check mirrors every 5–8 seconds and before every change of direction or speed.
- Turn your head for the blind spot before lane changes and when pulling out.
- Read the road edges: side roads, hidden driveways, parked cars, brows of hills, bushes at junctions.
Vulnerable road users
Children behave unpredictably: a ball, a bicycle at the kerb or a group at a bus stop all mean slow down and cover the brake. Give cyclists at least about 1 m when passing in town and 1.5 m outside built-up areas. Motorcyclists are easily overlooked at junctions - look twice before pulling out. Lorries have large blind spots on both sides and directly in front; never sit alongside one that is turning.
Conditions and your own state
Rain, wet leaves, black ice on bridges, fog and low sun all cut your margin: reduce speed and increase the gap. Fatigue is a hazard you carry with you - after about two hours of driving, or at the first signs of yawning and heavy eyelids, take a break. Illness, some medicines and strong emotions have the same effect as a small amount of alcohol.
Worked example
You drive past a row of parked cars and see a ball bounce into the road ahead. The correct response is to brake early and gently, and to expect a child to run out after the ball, so you stop before the row of cars rather than beside it, where a child could appear from between two vehicles. Sounding the horn or swerving into the oncoming lane would be worse: one surprises the child, the other creates a second hazard.
Traps that cost marks
- Fixating on the hazard and losing sight of what is behind and beside you.
- Overtaking on a hillcrest or blind bend because the road "looks clear".
- Assuming an oncoming car will stop at a zebra crossing.
- Using hazard lights to justify stopping in a dangerous place.
- Ignoring an indicator that suggests a truck is about to turn across you.