Following a driving incident in our shared driveway in January this year I had to front the Magistrates Court charged with careless driving. I had trouble getting free legal advice so I paid a barrister to do the worrying and other legal background and courtroom stuff for the two weeks prior to the case being heard.
The result was as favourable as possible: no conviction recorded, required to make a small donation to a road trauma charity and was placed on a six month good behaviour bond.
I also had the commercial vehicle endorsements of my driving licence downgraded and was required to pass a Traffic Authority Medical Review driving test by the 31st of march or my licence would be suspended for an unspecified time. I had not used ant aspect of the commercial driving licence in the past 14 years anyway, so no great loss there.
The test was originally scheduled for March 7th but I'd started what turned out to be 7 weeks of hospitalisation four days earlier and had to reschedule the test.
Fast forward a few months: I had until Sept 5th to pass the test which was scheduled for July 3rd but the tester had problems and had to reschedule once again. I underwent and passed the test on Monday morning this week. According to Google maps I travelled 20 km on the test and 3 km in vehicle familiarisation. Only three minor errors were made in the 40-minute test. Failure to observe traffic approaching a roundabout, failing to indicate intention to leave another roundabout and attempting to use the nonexistent clutch when selecting reverse while in the middle of a three-point turn. In this latter case, no deductions are made in such tests due to unfamiliarity with the vehicle which was a hybrid Toyota Corolla fitted with dual controls.
I have to repeat the test in July of 2026.