Latest News : Associate Membership of RoADAR

Becoming a parent is a proud moment in many people’s lives, and the importance of protecting your child is high on every parent’s agenda.

The roads can be a dangerous place, and because of this the two priorities for a parent who wants to keep their children safe in a car must be to provide a suitable child seat and to use their driving skills to avoid accidents.

The correct child seat is one of the most important pieces of safety equipment that parents buy. Seat belts are designed for adult occupants and while children are growing up they need a child restraint to help protect them in a crash.

We want to protect our children from the dangers of the roads, and even if we are cautious drivers ourselves, learning to predict and react to the dangerous mistakes of other road users can keep our family out of harms way.

Because of this, RoSPA believes that an Associate Membership of RoSPA Advanced Drivers And Riders (RoADAR) is a good investment for parents looking to achieve the best protection for their children. Not only will you get discounts on child seats but you can also find out how to brush up on your driving skills.

By joining, you will get

10% discount of Halfords Products and Services – and this includes child car seats.
1x RoSPA’s driver profiler which will assess your driving behaviour and give you useful hints and tips on how to strengthen your driving style.
15% discount on GEM Breakdown cover
50% off the subscription rate for Care on the Road magazine
Additional RoSPA driving articles
Discounts on online driver training

Plus as an associate member if you want to become an advanced driver or rider, to learn new skills that help you be safer on the roads, you will receive 10% discount off the advanced test fee.

You can find more information on joining RoADAR as an Associate Member for £15 by downloading the Application Form ( PDF format 180kb)

Buying a Safer Car seat – check list

A child car seat designed for the child’s height and weight will go a long way to protecting children in a crash. When buying a child car seat there are several things which you need to check. A basic check list is provided below but much more information is available on this website.

Is the child seat suitable for your car? The shape of car seats, the length of seat belts and the position of seat belt anchor points differ between cars. So, not all child seats fit all cars. For instance, the seat belt in a particular car may be too short to go around a certain child seat. It is essential to check that the child seat you purchase will fit in your car and that it will fit in all the seat positions you intend to use it. The manufacturer and retailer should advise you

Is the seat designed for your child? It is essential that the child restraint is suitable for your child. Check the packaging before you buy, as this should have

Can the retailer help you find the best seat? Some retailers are very knowledgeable about child restraints, others are not. Try to find a retailer who will let you try the seat in your car first and who will demonstrate how it should be fitted. If this is not possible, make sure you can return the seat, if it is not suitable.

Does the seat meet the latest safety Standard? Check that the seat you are buying meets the latest safety standard: ECE R44.03 or R44.04 (look for the E mark).

Does my car have airbags? If your car has an airbag in the front on the passenger's side, you must not use a rearward-facing seat in the front. So make sure, the seat will fit in the rear of your car.

Are the instructions easy to understand and follow? Many people find fitting child seats difficult. The most important thing is to read and follow the manufacturer's instructions. Some instruction booklets are clearly written and well illustrated. Others are difficult to understand and use. Ask to see the instruction booklet before you buy.

Does my car have ISOFix? A new child restraint system called ISOFix is being introduced. ISOFix points are fixed connectors in a car's structure into which an ISOFix child seat can simply be plugged.

Driver Profiler

When learning to drive, most of us take professional lessons where we can learn from the feedback of an instructor, which helps us to become better drivers. However, after the driving test many of us don’t have further professional tuition and can develop bad habits over time.

These bad habits can sadly result in accidents and injuries, and it is worth looking into refresher lessons if, for example, you ever find yourself,

having to brake sharply?
too close to the car ahead?
regretting what you’ve just done (e.g. accelerated through an amber light)?
creeping above the speed limit?
feeling anxious, tense or intimidated?

These bad habits can put ourselves at risk.

Before taking a refresher lesson, you can also use RoSPA’s driver profiler to help you identify areas of driving that you are good at, and areas of driving that you need to brush up on during lessons.

When you join as an associate member of RoADAR, you get to use the Driver Profiler for free.

Driver Profiler is an online psychometric assessment which was developed in partnership with BT in order to give individuals a better idea of their strengths and weaknesses when driving: it is not a test.

This assessment consists of 25 web pages split into two sections: the first asks the individuals to enter some personal details (name, age, gender, etc.); the second consists of a series of 98 statements regarding driving behaviour and attitudes whereby individuals have to decide to what extent each statement applies to them. It is important to stress that any characteristics or traits picked out during this assessment refer purely to driving attitudes and behaviours and not those displayed in everyday life. It should take no longer than 30 minutes to complete the assessment.

Individuals simply click on their choice of answer and this is recorded. At the end of the assessment each individual will have a separate score for the eight different traits being measured: aggression, alertness, stress, dislike of driving, anticipation, attention, violation, and error. There is also another scale, the lie scale, which tests whether individuals are answering honestly, or whether they are just giving the answers the tester wants to see.

These scores will be translated into a written report stating whether the individual is categorised as high, medium or low risk on any given trait. This will be accompanied by a short paragraph explaining what this score means in terms of driving behaviour and attitude, and whether any further training is recommended. The final report is automatically emailed to the individual, and a summary of results is presented in a spreadsheet.

Further Training

The Associate Membership can also be the first step towards doing Advanced Driver Training. You can get in touch with your local group of RoSPA’s Advanced Drivers and Riders who will provide you with free training so that you can take the Advanced Driving Test. Associate membership also entitles you to 10% discount of the test fee should you choose to take the Advanced Test.

You can find out more about advanced driving at http://www.roadar.org.uk