A driving instructor asked one of his 28-year-old female customers if she was single and insisted she was "drop-dead gorgeous".
The Appointed Driving Instructor (ADI) also asked her "who's your daddy" 15 times, according to a formal complaint received by the road safety watchdog. Another instructor, in his 60s, told a 22-year-old student that “girls on their period never do well in their driving test” because it affects their coordination and they “get flustered”.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) received 128 complaints made by learner drivers about ADIs last year - nearly seven times more than the year previously. The records were released to the Irish Mirror under freedom of information laws.
In another complaint, an ADI told their female customer to imagine she had two children in the back seat of their car during a lesson. They went on to tell her that if she didn’t drive carefully, she would cause an accident and kill them.
He was also reported for making racist comments about her country of origin and her current address, according to the complaint, saying: “The place you live in is very rough but I assume it isn’t as rough as the country you are from.”
Meanwhile, another learner driver said he had been beaten by his ADI, striking him on the thigh and the back of his head. He told the RSA that he had been “too scared” to react and had completed around 30 lessons with this instructor.
After completing a lesson and returning to a carpark, one complainant was aggrieved that the ADI got out of the vehicle and told his mother that the student had driven “worse than sh*te”. Another female driver reported her instructor to the RSA for putting his hand without permission on her knee to give her a “massage”.
Another complainant described one ADI’s lessons as “an absolute joke” as he left his customer waiting 20 minutes, made him pull into a shop, and stopped the lesson for about 15 minutes “to watch a couple having an argument”. In September, the RSA received a complaint about an ADI’s use of “vulgar language” saying things like “for f**k sake,” and “are you slow or something?”
The same instructor was also alleged to take 30-minute breaks to smoke cigarettes during lessons, and was described as being hungover during one lesson, explaining to the driver that he had been up late drinking at his son’s birthday party the night before.. According to another complaint, another ADI smoked during lessons despite being warned that his customer asthmatic, according to one complaint.
He also said the lessons were “filled with rage and anger” every time he made a mistake. At one point, the car stalled and the ADI shouted “Move the f**king car, move the f**king car” while the window was open, so people outside could hear his yells. A female complainant told the RSA that her instructor had slapped her thigh within 10 minutes of entering the car. “At first I thought it was an accident, but it happened again and again,” she said.
He also shouted at her until she cried, the complaint states. “He told me he didn’t care if I cried or if I came back for another lesson,” she said, adding that the instructor had said she was probably one of the worst students he’d ever had.
In order for ADIs to become accredited by the RSA, they must pass a series of tests and be police vetted. The agency did respond to a request for data in relation to disciplinary processes arising from complaints.
The Approved Driving Instructors Union is in the process of disbanding and becoming the Professional Driving Instructors Association. A representative was therefore not in a position to comment, as “neither organisation really exists at this moment”.
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