My driving instructor blamed me

[emily0108]

So i had a driving lesson yesterday, only my 3rd one, and it ended in such a disaster. I'm learning in an automatic as I had a few lessons in a manual and just could not grasp the clutch and gears and felt like I wasn't progressing.

I was coming up to a T junction, and a few minutes before approaching my instructor tells me to take my foot off the gas pedal and let the car slow down a bit on its own before even touching the break pedal. So at this point both my feet are flat on the ground. He then tells me to put my foot on the break, but I lost my foot bearings and accidentally put my foot on the gas pedal (and quite hard oops) so instead of slowing down we sped up and was almost at the end of the junction. There was no cars in front luckily, but we kept moving forward as if we was going to pull out. He shouted at me quite nastily "BREAK BREAK BREAK", and slammed his foot really hard down on his break. Obviously the car stopped but the break pedals came loose and neither would work at all. This was due to him making an emergency stop . He then shouted at me nastily "it's your fault, you have broke the car and I have a test in 45 mins". It's a bit of a blur because I was so worked up, he said other things to me out of anger as well.

I was so shocked, I felt liking crying my eyes out. I'm an inexperienced driver who is still very nervous on the road, and surely my instructor should be able to take full control over the car? What if an examiner had to do an emergency stop for someone and the breaks broke? It's made me feel very unsafe and even more nervous for future lessons. He was so nasty to me about it, I even apologised and he just ignored me. He managed to tighten both breaks back up, and then drove me home. Later on I realised that I shouldn't of apologised for temporarily breaking his car because it wasn't my fault? Or was it.. AIBU?

He was unprofessional, but you accelerated towards a junction when he asked you to brake. Instructor or not, that’s frightening and I think it’s understandable why he shouted.

We all make mistakes when learning to drive but this one is a bit worrying. My mistakes were things like doing a 5pt turn instead of a 3pt one. Accelerating into a junction can’t be a common sort of mistake, can it?!

Definitely find another instructor, op - look around for someone who taught a friend/colleague ideally. My instructor was the most patient man I have ever met and taught half my workplace to drive....

The incident was slightly your fault, but you're a student and he should not have put the responsibility on your shoulders. That's the point of having an instructor - they should be in control of the situation, not you!

Nopuns how about giving the OP a break? She's had a few lessons with a crap driving instructor. She's said she's learned from her mistake.

I agree that he was way too harsh and that you should find another instructor.

However OP, your feet should never both be flat on the floor. You keep your right foot over the accelerator or brake and just left off the top half to Ease up. You never remove bother feet from The pedals entirely.

But doesn't the driving instructor have pedals on his side too?
Where I learned to drive (to be fair, manual), the instructor had a second set of pedals on their side to be able to intervene in situations like that. I am also not sure if they are supposed to be yelling at you, my instructors were pretty strict but never mean. Also cars aren't supposed to break after an emergency stop, I remember practicing those on a quiet side road, which was actually quite cool. So I think the instructor was maybe under shock but he was BU, as an instructor you need to keep your cool in situations like that and make sure everyone is safe instead of having a go at the poor learner. Learning how to drive sucks, my sympathies, Op

Part of learning to drive is also learning what your feet should be doing and the instructor should have corrected you for not covering the brake - especially on only lesson 3.
I can understand him shouting "brake" as he needed to get your attention quickly, however that should have been the end of the shouting. Instructors have dual controls for a reason and he should just have taken over.

As for the brakes breaking during an emergency stop- well they shouldn't do that and the car was clearly not roadworthy.

Please find another instructor and if you can, ger a personal recommendation - ask around at work, among your friends etc.

@nopuns
Yiu shouldn't be driving especially if you don't understand

She’s not driving around on her own, she’s taking lessons, so that she does understand driving. Don’t be ridiculous.

Your foot should be covering brake and gas and not flat on the floor. Saying that I've been driving 10 years and I have done the same once before but only for a split second! A good instructor should have covered that rule with you in lesson one though!

YADNBU to be upset by this. Find a new, more patient instructor! And don't give up on learning in a manual, IMO you can massively disadvantage yourself by only having an automatic license and three lessons really isn't giving yourself enough time to get the hang of clutch and gears.

I swear this guy is posting on here:

But doesn't the driving instructor have pedals on his side too?
Where I learned to drive (to be fair, manual), the instructor had a second set of pedals on their side to be able to intervene in situations like that

In the OP it's explained how the instructor slammed on his brakes.

And don't give up on learning in a manual, IMO you can massively disadvantage yourself by only having an automatic license and three lessons really isn't giving yourself enough time to get the hang of clutch and gears.

I also agree with this OP. None of the tasks involved in driving - steering, indicating, gear changing - are difficult individually. They can be mastered with practice. The skill of driving is in doing them all at the same time whilst watching out for other road users, directions and potential hazards.

As a very new driver this can seem overwhelming, and perversely, the more anxious you are about it, the harder it becomes. 

I remember thinking I'd never get it and have had this exact conversation with my older children.

What I will say is that once do get it. It's amazing. When you have enough experience to perform the practical tasks without thinking it becomes much more straightforward.

To achieve this you need an instructor you are comfortable with and time. It will come with practice.

You were driving dangerously... but that's clearly because of inadequate tuition. If he hasn't covered absolute basics like covering the pedal rather than placing your foot flat on the floor, he is a terrible and dangerous instructor.

It's his job to make sure you don't make those mistakes - and notice if you are doing something wrong like that.

The car should also not break because he had to perform an emergency brake - that's what it is designed to do.

Don't waste another moment on this person, find another instructor and start again. Tell the new instructor about what happened to make it clear that the tuition you've had til now has been very poor and that you will quite likely have some basics missing and bad habits to un-learn.

Ali I don’t agree that learning in an automatic is a massive disadvantage. Mainly because of the gradual move to electric cars which are automatic.

Recent eco based legislation means that manufacturers have declared they'll be making only hybrid and electric cars by 2030, some as soon as 2019. These are all automatics.
Over half of all new cars sold in the UK in 2018 will be automatic (48% in 2017 and the trend is rising). These two facts mean that, if you get a manual license, even if your first car isn't an automatic, your second probably will be and every car after, too.
The old saying of “you must do gears then you can drive both” is becoming outdated.

I have had 13 manual driving lessons. I took (and passed) my theory last weekend but there is no practical test in sight yet as my instructor doesn't feel that I'm ready. FWIW I am 34 years old and had never driven a car before I started my lessons.

My current instructor is a lovely gentleman who has had fantastic reviews from other people.

I had 1 lesson (my first) with a different instructor from a different company and he rolled his eyes and made a sarcastic comment when I got in the car and explained that I had never driven before because I was never confident enough to do it. He got me to drive out of my avenue, then made me pull up pretty much straight away to tell me off about my foot placing (I had NEVER driven before) and I was that uncomfortable with him that I didn't even finish the lesson because I got the impression he only wanted to teach "younger" people. He raised his voice at me on numerous occasions (how was I supposed to know which lane to get in when I wanted to go round a roundabout and come off on the 3rd exit?) and in the end I stopped the car round the corner from my house and explained that I wasn't comfortable with the way he was speaking to me and didn't want to continue the lesson.

Don't feel obliged to stay with him, ask for a refund if you have paid in advance and explain the reasons why you will be looking for another instructor. When you find another instructor, explain your reasons for moving to them as well.

Also, manual is harder to learn IMO but 3 lessons isn't enough for it to sink in properly. I was told that around your 6th lesson learning in a manual is when something should click and you start doing it without thinking about having to do it.

Even now, I sometimes don't go into gear properly and he just politely reminds me that I'm in neutral and then chuckles to himself when I tell him to piss off because I knew that and was just testing him!

Don't be disheartened by an incompetent instructor and please don't let it put you off continuing to learn x