Woman failed test for driving through puddle
A mum failed her driving test for splashing a pedestrian when she drove through a puddle.
Michelle Kelly said the examiner's decision was 'ludicrous'.
And she says she could not believe it when she was told the incident was classed as having a crash and she should have exchanged details with the soggy bystander.
Michelle, 31, was more than half way through her test when she went through a puddle on Hazelbottom Road, Blackley.
Water showered a pedestrian who was standing at a nearby bus stop.
But Michelle, from Blackley, continued on her way back to the test centre in Cheetham Hill.
She said: "I pulled in at the centre and the examiner said he'd failed me. He then spoke at length about the splashing. I didn't do it on purpose and didn't really think that much of it at the time but he said it was a fault.
"Apparently it constituted a traffic offence and he was treating it as a road accident.
"He said I should have pulled over and exchanged details with the pedestrian."
The Highway Code does not specifically mention splashing pedestrians but rule 144 states you must not 'drive without reasonable consideration for other road users' while rule 147 says 'be careful of and considerate towards all types of road users'.
Michelle, who works for a funeral director and has two boys, said: "It was my third test and I was really confident. To fail for something like that really annoyed me.
"It's ridiculous. Why should you hand over your details? What good would that do? It wasn't as though I'd deluged this pedestrian.
"And if I'd swerved to avoid the puddle I might have caused an accident."
Michelle said she was now faced with a bill of around 200 bill to take the test again. It's a right pain," she said. "I'll have to wait until I get paid again.
"Then it's nearly 60 for the test, 40 to use the car for the test and I'll have to have more lessons in the meantime."
She also said more needed to be done to make learners aware of the splash laws.
"I spoke to a firm of driving instructors with over 60 years experience and they had never heard of it."
A spokesman for the Driving Standards Agency said they were investigating what had happened.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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