Next in our series of these guides is a step by step guide to reversing round a corner to the left.
1) The driving test examiner will usually tell you in advance what corner he wants you to reverse around or (like most driving instructors) he will stop you just after the turn. This will usually be on a quite side street in a residential area. When pulling up, make sure you are about one drains width from the kerb and that you can clearly see the corner you are turning into. Make sure your indicators are off for now and the car is in neutral with the handbrake firmly on.
2) Evaluate the corner. How tight is the turn, does it slope up or down. How wide is the road, are you likely to see traffic coming the other way and can you see round it.
3) Take a quick check around you and observe if it is clear to move off. If so, select reverse, let of the handbrake and start moving back, looking over your left shoulder out of the rear.
4) Keep looking over your shoulder and when the rear wheels of the car is roughly in line with the turn of the road.
5) At this point, you must, must take thorough observations of the road around you and check for traffic and pedestrians in front and behind (check you blind spot also).
6) If and when it is clear, move backwards slowly and keep turning the wheel depending on how sharp the turn is. You want to keep nice and parallel with the kerb so judge your turn based on this.
7) Keep looking in the left door mirror to ensure you are in line with the kerb at all times. If you are too tight, loosen the turn and if you are too far away, increase the turn. Try to maintain that one drain width we mentioned earlier. Your driving instructor will keep you well up to date of this during your driving lessons.
8 ) Keep checking around and infront of you as you are doing this incase someone comes round the corner as you turn.
9) When you are around the corner. Keep looking through the rear window and keep checking your position to the kerb relative to your position in the road. Keep reversing down the road about 2-3 car lengths (again your driving school can advise on this during your driving lessons).
10) Finally, handbrake on, gear in neutral and wait for further instruction from the driving examiner.
There you have it. Ten steps to reverse round the corner perfection. This manoeuvre always has a element of uncertainty as ever corner on every road is different (especially in the Fareham, Gosport, Lee on the Solent and Portsmouth area) and you can never cover all of the ones you are likely to face in your driving lessons. All you can do is get the technique outlined here right and the rest will look after itself.
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Comments or questions are welcome.
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