Ron Sutherland: Colin Ross - the new Highway Code rules

Hawick Rotarians have continued to enjoy a varied programme since their visit to Scott & Charters
factory on 21 st April. The following week, members were given an update on the progress of the On
Call Africa project which had raised funding to provide a 4x4 ambulance to rural Zambia.
Nine members then took part in the Langholm Club President's Night Dinner on 29 th April, and then
coincidentally a further group visited that Club on 5 th May. This replaced the annual First Foot visit in
early January, in the hope that better weather at this time would allow the visits to take place!
On 12 th May we were given a “driving lesson” by Colin Ross, a member of the Selkirk Rotary Club,
who is now a driving instructor after having had a career in computing for many years. His talk was
entitled ” The New Highway Code”.
Colin very ably and amusingly highlighted the new parts of the code and illustrated each with slides,
giving local examples of these. It was difficult to provide some examples however, as they really only
exist in the cities. As he said, he learned to drive in Hawick when there were no roundabouts and
some people have never really got to grips with their existence and how to negotiate them safely. A
word that Colin used often was 'safety', as our own safety and that of others should be one of our
main aims while driving. An example of a tactic for this being the Dutch-reach door opening
technique (opening the car door with the hand furthest from it) which ensures we do not open
doors into traffic or hit pedestrians on the pavement.
This was a very well presented and informative talk followed by a host of questions showing the
enthusiasm of the members for the presentation. President Scott Elliot followed this with a vote of
thanks.