Answering Difficult Questions
During the pilot workshops, the facilitators had a good level of road safety knowledge and were able to answer technical questions as they arose. There was a wide range of specific questions asked by delegates. These tended to be either knowledge-based (e.g. – what's the difference between speaking on a mobile phone and speaking to a passenger) or to do with driving circumstances (e.g. – what should I do if a driver is tailgating me).
As the workshop is designed to be discussion-based, with an aim of learning through reflection of one's own driving, a level of road safety knowledge is not necessarily required to run one. If a question arises which you cannot answer, then there are several options.
Firstly, fitting into the theme of the workshop, the question could be put back to the delegates for discussion. This gets them to consider and reflect on the problem and find a solution to it, which is a valuable skill in itself. In the case of questions around driving circumstances, developing self-reflection is arguably a more fundamental and useful activity than simply learning what best practice in an individual circumstance would be – as the underpinning skill can be more widely applied to a greater number of situations.
However, the facilitator should manage the discussion so that the final consensus is not one which would be judged as 'unsafe'.
There will be a 'right' answer to knowledge-based questions or a 'best practice' to driving circumstances. Following the group discussion the facilitator can promise to investigate the issue and circulate the solution to the group after the workshop.
There is a number of sources which facilitators can use. RoSPA has a wide range of free road safety factsheets and resources covering different topics.
A third, rarer, group of questions contains a moral element or questions the basis of the workshop (e.g. – why is this workshop aimed at us, other drivers are the problem). When this came up in one of our workshops, we resolved the situation by bringing the discussion back to the initial activity linking experience with visual scanning and also asking them to reflect on the high accident rate of novice drivers. For example, if it is "other road users" who are the problem, then why isn't that reflected more in the accident rates of younger drivers? We also highlighted some initiatives aimed at drivers of other ages or to reduce other accident trends.
Share this page: