A driving-test examiner has reported a driving instructor for attempting to strangle him during a practical examination.
“Not in 40 years has anything like this happened to me. Yes, there have been problems with students but never with the driving instructors,” he complained, adding, “He tried to take my life just because I was carrying out my duty as a test examiner.”
Things started not long after the student pulled away. The examiner told the instructor to switch on the warning lights on the dashboard that indicated if the instructor is operating the controls. “He responded in an unseemly manner that the device had come loose and was in the glove compartment.”
At this point the examiner informed the driving instructor that he was going to submit a written complaint to the Jefatura de Tráfico; i.e., the governmental department in charge of driving tests.
“At this point he started to insult me and even threatened to take my life!,” continued the examiner.
The examiner attempted to get out of the car but the instructor stopped him, according to the ‘victim,’ by grabbing him by the neck and applying pressure. And there it might have ended in the death rattle of an expiring driving-test examiner, had a student in the driving seat not intervened… no doubt sensing that the chances of passing were slipping away along with the state of consciousness of the examiner.
The examiner managed to break free, jump out the car and run off, despite a serious lack of breath.
“I had an ‘encounter’ with him about seven years ago when I failed his niece, whom I considered not competent for a licence,” explained the examiner. “He tried to attack me then – I have witnesses, and since then we have always had a tense working relationship.”
According to the Association of Driving Examiners (Asextra) there has never been a case in the whole of Spain where an instructor attacked an examiner – a few students, yes, but not an instructor.
As for the alleged aggressor, who runs a driving school on Calle Acera de Canasteros in Granada. “This man started by insulting my students and I was not going to put up with that,” he explained. I did not attack him – I have witnesses who can back this; I only recriminated him on his attitude.”
According the the instructor, all this is fruit of four previous occasions where they had tense words. “The incident the other day was the latest. I simply asked for a different examiner [pass me another examiner; this one’s not breathing…] and kept my cool.
End on a positive note, the two students in the car ended the day by passing their test.
(News: Metropolitan Granada, Andalucia)