A WAGGA mother has accused Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) of purposely failing young adults on their driving tests to meet quotas and raise revenue.
Angela Foreman’s 22-year-old daughter, Bianca Elford, received a near-perfect score of 96 per cent on her driving test in Wagga on Monday.
But Bianca failed the test because the assessor believed she did not execute adequate “head checks”.
Ms Foreman has since launched a scathing attack on RMS, calling for a change to the highly subjective law on head checks because it allowed assessors to fail people “on purpose” – generating close to $60 each time a driver re-sits a test.
Ms Foreman believed the RMS driving test guide – which states a driver must turn their head to check blind spots – was open to interpretation. Ms Foreman said her daughter did perform head checks, while the assessor believed otherwise.
“It’s revenue raising,” she said.
“I have just heard of it happening to so many people. It’s about making people lose their licence (so they can make money).”
Physically turning your head right around is also dangerous, Ms Foreman stressed.
Bianca said most of her friends were failing their licence tests in Wagga because assessors “were too strict” and so were choosing to obtain a licence in other towns.
Ms Foreman made a formal complaint to RMS in Wagga upon hearing Bianca had failed. The Wagga RMS manager has allowed Bianca to re-sit the test next week free of charge.
“It’s just way too stringent as far as I’m concerned,” Ms Foreman said.
“I think there are thousands of people they’re doing this to and it’s got to stop. We’ve got to make a stand.”
An RMS spokesman clarified an applicant was required to obtain 90 per cent or more with no fail items to pass a driving test and be issued with a provisional P1 licence.
“Checking blind spots is an essential observation skill and frequently failing to perform observation checks results in a fail item,” the spokesman said.
“Applicants who fail can retake a driving test seven days from the date of their last test.”
