When individuals purchase psychoactive substances, there is usually little or no information at all provided about what the ‘high’ contains. In fact many cases present in A&E are difficult to treat for this very reason. If you do not know what you have taken, how can you know how it will affect you?

We are encouraging our members to write blogs for us, letting us know the reasons behind them taking the advanced test. Karen Canner of Birmingham Advanced Motorists shares the story behind her taking her test to honour her late father, Sergeant Ron Hardwick (formerly West Midlands Police) who taught her to drive over 30 years ago to the standard of Roadcraft.

John Travolta couldn’t have sung it any better way back in the late 70’s, there he was talking about driving an automatic car in a systematic way. That’s what I think now I know about a little book called Roadcraft. Are you singing the tune in your head now? Yes, me too.

Whilst 2016 was an eventful year for many companies, for IAM RoadSmart it was a mammoth year! We implemented a huge change programme, one which will enable growth in the business and moreover enable us to achieve our mission to make better drivers and riders. Rebranding from The Institute to Advanced Motorists to IAM RoadSmart, launching our new web site www.iamroadsmart.com, and moving our headquarters from Chiswick to Welwyn Garden City have made for a busy year, and there is room for even more growth and development in 2017.

I am a big advocate of social media. My job revolves around planning and executing social media campaigns, so it’s quite hard not to be! However, I am also a strong believer of maintaining a safe and healthy balance.