Now that the DVSA has U-turned on allowing parents to practise driving with their children (so long as it's an essential journey), we can start our parental help blog posts again.  This week we're looking at the controlled stop. Some might know this at the emergency stop, but that might conjure up the wrong image in the drivers mind. Emergency is far too last second and instinctive. The examiners want to see the car brought to a short, sharp stop. However, it must be totally under control.

Get ready

This will not be sudden sprung upon anyone during the exam. The examiner will pull them in first and explain what will happen. They'll expect the driver to make progress as normal and when safe, the examiner will say stop (in a slightly raised voice) and put their hand out in front of them, palm facing the windshield.

The student should mentally visualise what's about to happen before pulling away. The big clue that the examiner is about to say stop is that they will look over their shoulder out of the back window to check it's safe. 

When the hand comes out, the sequence kicks in.

No mirrors. There's no time. The most important thing is to stop. So the brake comes on first. Firm enough to lock the seat belts, but not so firm that the ABS activates. If the car skids, they could fail the driver.

A fraction of a second after the brake goes down, the clutch is fully depressed. For two reasons. Firstly to cut the engines power. Secondly to prevent the car from stalling. 

The brake must go down before the clutch. Otherwise the car could pick up speed. 

The car should stop very quickly. The driver must keep their feet down on the pedals. Get them to apply the handbrake and put the car into neutral. Now the pedals can be released. 

Half way POM

The driver should now use this time to regather their composure. In a real life situation (or on test day) their heart rate could be high. They need to calm down first. This is only half of the controlled stop. Moving away safely is import.

They need to Prepare, Observe and then Manoeuvre (POM). 

First gear, set the gas and find the bite. 

The observation is very different to what usually happens. It needs to start with looking over their left shoulder out of the rear window. Back left. Passenger. Front. Their window and finishing up with a blind spot check over their right shoulder. So, essentially a 360 degree sweep, left to right shoulder. 

The reason for this is that the car could be in the middle of the road. Perhaps even an odder position. They need to check all around the car before moving away.

Then acting sensibly on what they see. Don't slow anyone down unnecessarily. 

If all is safe, move off and perhaps check all three mirrors just in case some cyclist happened to be in a blind spot created by head restraints or support pillars. 

And that's how to correctly perform the controlled stop.