Title: Expert Driving Instructor Prioritizes Safety Over Smooth Acceleration

Content:

Title: Expert Driving Instructor Prioritizes Safety Over Smooth Acceleration

Mireia Brunet, an experienced driving instructor, has made her pedagogical philosophy clear: she would prefer a car's engine to stall a thousand times over than a student losing control by not paying attention to their surroundings. In an era where anxiety about stalling the vehicle often grips new drivers, Brunet emphasizes that a minor technical error in pedal management poses no real danger, whereas lack of attention to the environment represents the true risk for road safety.

Historically, driving education has been marked by the stress generated in students from mechanically controlling the car. The fear of the engine stalling suddenly at an intersection, traffic light, or busy merge paralyzes tension, often diverting attention from what truly matters. Brunet argues this traditional approach is misguided, as prioritizing vehicle fluidity over conscious observation leads to potentially hazardous situations where the aspiring driver loses control of the trajectory or ignores the presence of other road users.

When a student obsesses over not stalling the car, their gaze fixates obsessively on the instrument panel, gearshift, or pedals, completely abandoning mirror checks and blind spots. This loss of spatial perspective is, according to the teacher, the decisive factor in erratic and unpredictable maneuvers.

A vehicle parked unintentionally on the shoulder usually provokes little more than the impatience of other drivers or a slight delay, but a car continuing in motion with the driver unaware of pedestrians, cyclists, or adjacent vehicles can lead to serious accidents. Learning to drive should not be seen as mere physical coordination between the clutch and accelerator, but as an integral process of managing the environment and making real-time decisions.

For Brunet, the absolute priority during practical lessons must be cultivating a constant and structured habit of observation. Students should learn to anticipate the movements of other traffic elements before worrying about the smoothness of gear shifts, as technical skill is acquired through repeated practice, while a preventive attitude should be instilled from the first day. Social pressure and fear of ridicule play a detrimental role in the early stages of learning to drive. Many novices feel an excessive urgency to quickly restart the car when it stalls by mistake, leading them to release the clutch hastily without verifying the road is clear. This impulsive reaction driven by nerves is precisely what generates situations of