The Region II Executive Committee also welcomed Mr T K Malhotra, of the AAUI, as Region II Vice President and the impending appointment of Takayoshi Yashiro as the new vice-president of the Japan Automobile Federation.

As part of its member clubs’ commitment to the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and FIA Action for Road safety, Region II yesterday also reported that it is continuing with its programme of Driver’s Intructor Training.

The latest round of the programme, again hosted by the Japan Automobile Federation, took place in early October at JAF’s Tokyo Regional Headquarters and at the Japan Automobile College in Narita. Six delegates from member clubs in five countries took part in the three-day course, which was supported by Japan’s National Police Agency.

Day one saw the participants – from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Singapore – inspect the traffic situation in Tokyo to get an overview of the problems faced by road users and the solutions present to deal with those difficulties.

The second day featured a presentation by JAF on the club’s activities in relation to improving road safety in Japan. The participants were then afforded the opportunity to make presentations on the situation in their own country.

This was followed by demonstrations of several devices used in JAF’s training programmes, including the Driver’s Dock, aimed at providing an understanding of the visual acuity needed when driving, and the Seat Belt Slide, which simulates a 5kph impact.

Day three took the participants out of the realm of the theoretical and onto the roads, with driving experiences that demonstrated ABS operation, how to steer smoothly, incident avoidance and a sampling of a number of safety technologies.

Afterwards the trainees reported that the course had been a revealing experience, with the representative from Singapore saying that the demonstration showed that “it is possible to conduct driver training in populated areas, away from racing circuits”.

“We will look into possibilities to conduct similar training in Singapore to encourage road safety,” he added. Others added that they would also consider introducing elements of the course to members of their own clubs.