16.1 The Good Driver, Mirrors and Concentration

The Good Driver, Mirrors and Concentration

The Guyana Police Force Learner/Driver Theoretical Programme (April 2025) lists Theory of Driving and Good Driving Habits as subject 12 of the learner syllabus. This independent OpenExamPrep chapter teaches that programme topic, together with related habits in the Guyana Road Traffic Code. The GPF electronic multiple-choice sitting is derived largely from the official study package, so the wording of the good-driver definition, the mirror rule, and the concentration examples is worth knowing in the form the booklet uses.

What the programme means by a good driver

The programme’s definition of a good driver is not “someone who has not been in a crash” and not “someone who keeps to the speed limit.” It is a standard of contribution:

A good driver is one who always drives in such a manner that, no matter what condition they may be confronted with and from whatever source — whether arising from the unsafe behaviour of other road users or from the state of the road, weather, or vehicle — no action or lack of action on their part will contribute in any degree to the development of an accident situation.

Two exam ideas sit inside that sentence.

Action can cause a crash. Pulling away from a Georgetown kerb without a rear check, cutting in after overtaking on the right (the legal overtaking side on Guyana’s left-hand roads), leaving main beams on when meeting traffic on an East Coast carriageway, or turning fully toward a passenger while the vehicle is moving are actions. Each can contribute to an accident situation even if the other party also made a mistake.

Lack of action can cause a crash. Failing to glance before a course change, failing to look around as well as using the glass, failing to hold the vehicle still at lights, or failing to stop when you cannot see the road are omissions. The definition treats inaction as seriously as a wrong movement. “I did nothing” is not a defence if doing something reasonable — a mirror glance, a dip of the beams, a decision not to drive — would have prevented the situation from developing.

Conditions do not excuse the driver. A minibus that stops without warning, a flooded dip after rain, glare on the Demerara Harbour Bridge, oil on a town street, or a vehicle with weak brakes are all “conditions.” The good driver still contributes nothing, by doing or by failing to do, to the accident those conditions might otherwise produce. That is a higher bar than hoping other people behave.

Yourself: if you cannot concentrate, do not drive

Before mirrors and pedals, the programme asks a personal question under the heading Yourself: are you alert, free from undue strain from any cause, and able to give full concentration to the job of driving? If not, do not drive.

That self-check belongs with the defensive-driving “driver condition,” where age, attitude, fatigue, alcohol or drug impairment, and emotion are listed as factors, and where 66 to 85 percent of collisions are attributed to driver error. The theory-of-driving pages turn the same idea into a habit: concentration is not extra credit. It is the job. If a night shift, an argument, illness, or a lingering drink has left you unable to give the road your whole mind, the booklet’s answer is not “drive extra carefully.” It is stay off the road.

Guyana law already treats some splits of attention as offences. Section 37A of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act Cap. 51:02 bans driving (and supervising a provisional-licence holder) while using a hand-held mobile telephone or similar hand-held device, with narrow exceptions such as a genuine emergency call to the disciplined forces, ambulance service, or a registered medical practitioner. The programme’s concentration rule is broader than that statute. Even a legal passenger conversation becomes unsafe if you turn to talk and take eyes and mind off the left-hand road ahead.

Mirrors as the third eye

The programme calls the mirror your third eye. After you have adjusted the driving seat, adjust the mirrors so that you have maximum rear vision at a glance. Typical Guyana cars are right-hand drive on left-hand traffic roads, so the driver sits on the off side. You still need both of the following:

• An interior mirror for the view through the rear window.
• Exterior mirrors on the rear sides (near side / left and off side / right). The programme is explicit: with an interior mirror alone you will certainly have one or more blind spots, which can only be overcome by fitting rear-side exterior mirrors.

Exterior mirrors are not magic. They can be deceptive because of the reduced image. Practice is necessary to estimate distance and speed of approach accurately — a motorcycle closing along the East Coast, a hire car sitting in the off-side blind area, a cyclist on the near side in Georgetown, or a vehicle tucked close behind a minibus on the Soesdyke–Linden Highway.

When to glance

Make it a habit to glance into the mirror at the moments the booklet names. Looking around is part of the same habit, not a substitute you use instead of the glass.

The Road Traffic Code’s advice on competence uses the same order as mirror–signal–manoeuvre. The glance is not a one-second ritual you skip on a “quiet” interior road. Blind spots remain even with exterior mirrors: overtaking traffic on the right, low motorcycles, and vehicles hidden by a bus body. Before you change anything about how the car is moving, you need a fresh picture of what is behind and beside you.

Getting out deserves extra emphasis for learners. The booklet pairs “before getting out of the car” with the same glance habit as starting and changing course. On a Georgetown street with alternate-date parking, or on the verge of an East Bank road, opening the off-side door into a moving lane is a classic contribution to an accident situation. The third eye, plus a head check, is how you avoid that contribution.

Concentration and anticipation

At no time should a driver share concentration with any other activity while driving. The programme’s examples are the ones to remember for the theoretical examination:

• Turning to talk to a passenger
• Allowing your mind to wander
• Looking for something in your pocket
• Reading a map
• If you find it difficult to concentrate, stop, or let someone else drive

Concentration is what makes anticipation possible. If you are watching the road ahead you can observe movements or situations far ahead, anticipate other road users, and react in time. That is the everyday version of the defensive-driving formula — recognize the hazard, understand the defence, act correctly in time — applied as a habit rather than a slogan.

Map-reading while moving is especially tempting on an unfamiliar run toward Bartica, along a new East Bank connector, or through a village whose junctions are not posted the way a town grid is. The safe habit is to stop in a lawful place, have a passenger navigate, or study the route before you start. Pocket rummaging for coins, cards, or a phone is the same split attention the Act already treats as dangerous when the device must be held. Turning in the seat to talk is the booklet’s first listed example because it takes both eyes and shoulders off the driving task.

Mind-wandering is harder to police than a map, but the programme still names it. A driver whose thoughts are on a family dispute, a workplace problem, or the next stop is not giving the job full concentration. On a wet Canje Bridge approach, or at night on an unlighted stretch, that lack of action — failing to keep the mind on the road — is exactly the contribution the good-driver definition forbids.

Signals still leave you responsible

The purpose of a signal is to tell other road users what you propose to do. Having given it, you are still responsible for seeing that it is safe to carry out the intention. Give only signals prescribed in the Highway Code / Guyana Road Traffic Code, give them clearly and in good time.

A flashing indicator does not buy a right to pull out from a kerb into a moving lane on Camp Street or Sheriff Street. Mirror, signal, then manoeuvre only if the way is actually clear. That loop is how the good-driver definition becomes muscle memory: you contribute neither a late surprise action nor a missing glance.

The Code also warns that unwillingness to give way, and excessive use of horns to demand the right of way, are examples of inconsiderate driving. A competent driver under the Certifying Officer’s test, and a good driver under the theoretical programme, is the opposite of that picture: planned, considerate, and still fully responsible after every signal.

Building the habit from the first lesson

The Road Traffic Code tells learners that formation of good driving habits matters from the start, and that only planned driving gets safe results. Try to anticipate other road users and think ahead all the time. Independent study of these GPF and Code pages will not replace supervised practice with L plates, but it will tell you what the theory paper expects: full concentration, mirrors as a third eye, and no contribution — by doing or by failing to do — to an accident situation, whatever the minibus, the weather, or the road is doing.