Dorchester pensioner’s advanced driving test success in his 90th year

10:00am Tuesday 27th March 2012

By Catherine Bolado and Harry Hogger

A Dorchester motorist celebrated his 90th year by passing his advanced driving test.

Great-grandfather Cyril Treviss, who turns 90 in July, proved that despite his advancing years his driving skills were as sharp as ever when he faced the Institute of Advanced Motorists test.

He received a certificate signed by IAM President Nigel Mansell for his efforts.

Cyril has been driving since he was 16 – meaning he has now spent more than 70 years behind the wheel. He said: “I wanted to do something for my 90th year so I decided to do the test.”

Mr Treviss saw an advert for the IAM in the Dorset Echo and went along to the classes and went out with an observer.

He said: “It’s not too bad, there’s no writing, just driving and questions.”

As part of the course all drivers learn driving techniques including driving with hands at quarter to and quarter past on the steering wheel, not to cross hands when turning the wheel and not to drive with one hand on the wheel and the other on the gear stick.

Mr Treviss, who has lived in Dorchester his whole life, had no problems in passing first time.

He said: “It is surprising what you see after you have done your test and you see how other people drive.”

Driving has always been something Mr Treviss enjoyed. When he started driving at 16 he was doing an apprenticeship with Crabb and Co in Dorchester and drove a Ford Ten. Today he drives a modern Ford Fiesta but said his favourite vehicle to drive had to be a tank.

Before he retired he used to work as a fitter for a tank shop in Bovington and was an examiner for the army. As part of his job he got to drive the tanks.

He said: “Tanks are agile and nice things to drive. They are almost better than a car because people get out of your way.”

He added that the new tanks that came out before he left were the best things he had driven.

assessment’s EXACTING STANDARDS

CYRIL received a certificate signed by IAM president Nigel Mansell for his efforts.

The test is run by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and was set up in 1956 with the objective of improving driving standards using the principals applied by the Metropolitan Police.

More than 400,000 people have so far taken the test and the pass rate is 75 per cent.

Drivers have an initial assessment with a volunteer from the local IAM group and then do six to eight on-road drives with an observer to get the person test ready.

The test takes 90 minutes on rural and urban roads and is conducted by a serving or retired police officer who holds a Police Advanced Driving Certificate.