A learner driver was so frightened by an instructor’s insults and “wild yelling” that they suffered diarrhoea during a lesson last year, according to a complaint received by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

Another instructor was accused of making “creepy comments” and repeatedly telling a female student that she was “beautiful” during a series of driving lessons, as well as making “sexist” remarks about women in the home.

An instructor who was apparently concerned about their student’s driving ability resorted to praying loudly in the car during a lesson, but ended up shouting and threatening to leave them at the side of the road.

One learner driver who was doing their first lesson was told to stop the car and get out just after they had moved off. The instructor threw their bag at them and drove away.

Another complainant reported having a difference of opinion with an instructor over a U-turn. When they failed to obey orders, the instructor refused to speak for the rest of the lesson, saying: “Do what you want.”

The RSA also received a complaint from the brother of an autistic driver, who would “return in tears from each driving lesson” due to the aggressive behaviour of the instructor.

Another learner driver with a disability complained after they failed to follow directions and the instructor yelled “Are you deaf?” – apparently unaware that they had an auditory impairment.

These were among 159 complaints received by the RSA last year regarding Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs), 35 of which related to inappropriate behaviour, while 30 were about the quality of lessons.

A bus driver complained to the agency about an ADI who was giving a lesson when their car incorrectly entered an intersection. When this was pointed out, the instructor began shouting, using “vulgar” words, and sticking up his middle finger.

“Such behaviour is absolutely unacceptable for someone in the responsible role of a driving instructor. It is not only a poor example for the learner but also poses a threat to road safety,” wrote the bus driver, who included dash-cam footage of the incident.

A learner driver complained that they had felt “uncomfortable and unwelcome” when their instructor had made an “inappropriate comment” about her nationality, remarking on their appearance and how they didn’t look “Irish”.

Another student reported that an ADI had yelled and called them an idiot. “He was scaring me with his body language and wild yelling,” they wrote.

The learner driver responded by saying: “If you are going to be a d*ck, I will be a d*ck too.”

They claimed that the instructor then put his face so close to theirs that they could “smell his foul breath”, before making a fist and hitting them with his “filthy finger” on the side of the mouth.

“Look at here now, be careful who you call a f**king d*ck,” he replied, according to the complaint.

The learner driver said they had been humiliated by the incident, and so afraid that they experienced diarrhoea.

Another complaint alleged that an instructor had been “consistently rude” during lessons and slapped the driver’s hand on multiple occasions when they were changing gears.

An ADI was also accused of cutting a lesson short to “sort out a feud with his wife”, while he also “threw tantrums”, was “impossible to deal with”, and was “not mentally fit to be an instructor”.

When one learner driver needed to cancel their test, an ADI helpfully suggested that they pretend to have Covid and offered to provide them with a photograph of a positive antigen test.

A number of complaints alleged that driving instructors were signing off on the mandatory 12 Essential Driver Training (EDT) lessons without actually providing them.

There were also 11 complaints during the first six months of last year from residents of estates that were being used by driving instructors to practice manoeuvres, citing concerns for children’s safety.

Another learner driver was moved to contact the RSA about the “abuse” they had received from their instructor, who had things like “I’ve never met someone with a brain like you,” and “Things that come naturally to others don’t come to you”.

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