Driving instructors are the key persons in transmitting road safety strategies and attitudes to drivers. Not all aspects of safe driving can be tested in the driving test. Therefore an efficient transmission of the key messages for safe driving is essential. The better qualified driving instructors are the more they can influence the later driving behaviour of their learner drivers. To have driving instructors who are real safety experts is a basic precondition for reducing the high accident involvement of novice drivers on European roads. Most importantly, the driving instructor training and testing curriculum must correspond to the demands of road safety. The goal of the MERIT project was to elaborate minimum European requirements for instructor training and testing, as a basis for an EU directive. But the project team recommends each member state to go, where possible, beyond these minimum criteria. With this in mind, a long-term vision paper is included in the report. Improvements in instructor training have already taken place during the timeframe of the MERIT project. In Austria a proposal for a new law for instructors training and testing has been drafted following MERIT principles. Also in France initiatives of ECF (l’Ecole de Conduite Française) have been launched in order to implement the MERIT standards prior to an EU-directive. In this sense the MERIT project can already be seen as the precursor of higher standards for driving instructor training in the EU. (Author/publisher)
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