Mythbusters and Magic: Things people believe are true – but aren’t
Driver Safety Theatre: Session
30th April 2026, 11:45
Transcript
ST: Over the last couple of months, we've been developing a new resource called Mythbusters. We've created a set of 52 common myths relating to how your drivers behave and how you manage your drivers, along with a full training guide explaining why each myth isn't true and what you actually need to know.
We created 52 so we could put them out as weekly social media posts on LinkedIn, which we're going to start next week. Because there are 52, we also thought we could turn them into a deck of playing cards. Every one of you is going to get a set of those at the end of the session.
Many of you will have seen our resident magician, Matty Evans, who's been with us for the six years that we've been doing this. We've roped Matty into helping us with this session, which we'll start in a moment with some real live close-up magic to discuss some of the myths.
We have our expert panel here: Stefan Szrama, Head of QHSE Culture, Communications, and Fleet Safety at Mitie. We also have Alison Moriarty, Executive Director, Risk and Operations for Beverly Bell Consulting and Training, who is our queen of hearts. Mike Haywood, king of diamonds, Partner and Head of Regulatory and Dispute Resolution with Woodfind Solicitors. And Mark Cartwright, Head of Commercial Vehicle Incident Prevention at National Highways. They will be discussing some of the myths in this session.
Matty Evans, close-up magician and event host, has also just won Wedding and Events Magician of the Year 2026, and last night he won another award: Leading Professional Magician and Event Host at the Global Elite Awards 2026. He is joining us fresh from that win.
So I'm going to hand over to Matty now to start the session. This is all about things that most people believe are true but aren't.
ME: Good morning everybody. Before we go into the Mythbusters, I'm going to try and give something back to you. I'm going to give the opportunity for somebody to win a gift.
In all of these envelopes, I've placed a gift. I'm going to choose somebody at random. The gentleman with the glasses on just here, what's your name?
Massimo, lovely to meet you. You're going to choose one of these envelopes. Before you do, I've written a few things on the front of them. One says "mine envelope", another says "yours", and another is the "mystery envelope". For some reason, nobody ever chooses the mystery envelope, so I'll leave that on the table behind me.
The first thing you'll notice is that "mine" is a lot bigger than "yours". But that's probably just genetics, mate, so don't worry about that.
In a moment, we're all going to count down from five to one, and you're going to make your decision. You may see it as mine, yours, or vice versa depending on your perspective.
Five, four, three, two, one. Massimo, would you like mine, would you like yours, or would you like the mystery that nobody has ever chosen before?
You're thinking I'm leading you to choose the mystery? It's your choice. Which one would you like?
You're going to take the mystery. That was easy, wasn't it?
As a magician, I'll give you the option to change your mind. If you do change your mind, you didn't have to, but if you don't, you could have. I'll ask you one last time: stick with the mystery or switch to mine or yours?
You're going to stick with the mystery.
We're going to open the mystery envelope, and you have won yourself a car air freshener, courtesy of Flagship partners.
Even though I gave you the option to change your mind, if you had gone with "yours", you wouldn't have won the air freshener – you would have won £150. If you had gone with "mine", you wouldn't have won the air freshener or £150 – you would have won £250. Just to clarify, there's nothing else in there, is there?
No. You would have won £250, but you didn't win that either. Despite what everyone else thinks, in my eyes you're still a winner. Give him a round of applause.
We are now going to move on to the Mythbusters. We're going to get some random cards selected, and you will all have these. As Simon pointed out earlier, you'll get to take away a pack of these as well.
We're going to randomly select four cards, and the panel will discuss whichever myths are selected.
Renee, we're going to start with you. I'm going to shuffle the cards. Just say stop wherever you like.
Take the card. We'll give one to you, and one to you, and we'll come further in here. Again, just say stop.
Take the card. One more, thank you.
You all have different Mythbusters cards.
First, could you confirm the playing card and read out the Mythbuster?
Audience: The Four of Clubs, Myth 14: A driver who's never had a collision is a safe driver.
MC: What do you think – are they a safe driver or a lucky driver? The data could be misleading. Are they safe or lucky?
AM: There are many drivers on the road who perhaps shouldn't be there who have never had an incident, and many who have caused incidents. People can be very lucky. Having no collision doesn't necessarily mean you're a good driver. So yes, that's definitely a myth.
SS: Something else to consider is that if an employee has been involved in a traffic accident, it's reasonable to expect them to reflect on it and potentially become a better driver as a result.
MH: There's a common idea that it's not vehicles that have crashes, it's people. Those who are affected by incidents can often help others improve. Bringing that driver into discussions about their experience can be useful for the wider fleet.
ME: Could you read out your card and Mythbuster?
Audience: It's the Ace of Clubs. Myth 2: Hands-free mobile phones – if it's legal, it's safe.
AM: This is one of my pet subjects. No, it's not safe. There's a real misconception that legal and safe are the same thing. They are not. There are many unsafe things that aren't illegal.
There is strong evidence, including research from the Transport Research Laboratory, showing that when you're on a hands-free call, your concentration is affected to a similar level as being at the drink-drive limit. Most people wouldn't consider driving at that level, yet they think a hands-free call is fine.
In my other role as a magistrate, people often don't realise the legislation covers more than just phone calls. It also includes sat nav use and now things like smartwatches. It's important to understand this legislation, especially when managing fleets.
SS: Something else to consider is that the law can put drivers in a difficult position. You can legally make or take a hands-free call, but if something goes wrong, that decision can still be used against you in court.
MH: And my team, when we're dealing with driver handbooks and advising companies, see far too often fleet managers saying, "Do not use your phone. You could get six points."
Nothing in there says we're going to assure you we're not going to phone you when we can see on these analytic systems that you're driving. And nothing in there says if you're involved in a serious injury or death collision, the fact that you were on your phone and distracted isn't six points, but can mean almost certain immediate custody.
We've got to get really heavy on this. It's not so much about using the phone, but addiction. It's that addiction to the phone that's one of the biggest causes.
MC: There's a broader issue here as well, almost a philosophical issue. This isn't about managing compliance with the job that my team do. We can show you loads of crashes involving perfectly compliant vehicles and perfectly compliant drivers, but I still can't kill somebody. So it's about the management of risk, not the management of compliance. Anything that distracts that driver's attention from the job in hand has got to be a no.
AM: That includes handheld and hands-free mobile phones. If any of you have companies and you do call drivers as a manager, and you say, "I'll catch up with you while you're driving," because that's seen as downtime, if there is an incident there is an offence of cause or permit, and you are then guilty of doing that because, knowing that person is driving, you have had a hand in that happening.
ME: Thank you very much, panel.
We had two more, I believe.
Audience: The five of hearts: "Hung over, a strong coffee, and a good breakfast will clear your head." [laughter]
MH: I'm going to take this one because drink driving the morning after is a terrible thing. The consequences for that driver are at least a year's ban or worse.
There's a common misconception, which I am fed up hearing in three decades of dealing with the law, that I can have a pint and lose half a pint every hour, or a glass of wine and lose it every half hour. People finish drinking at 11 or 12 at night and go to work at 6 the next morning. There is every chance the blood has not yet fully cleared the alcohol before it starts to reduce.
We have to get rid of that message, because morning-after driving and the effect of alcohol on someone's ability to brake and make judgment calls is significant.
You cannot, as employers, police everything people do in their social lives, but you can put in measures of random testing, whether drug and alcohol testing or simply keeping an eye on people. We all have experience of recognising signs, even something like smell.
It is an absolute misconception. It's not about what you eat, your size, whether you smoke, whether you've had fresh air, or had a big breakfast. Zero tolerance is needed in the workplace.
AM: Just to add, there is research showing that if you eat a lot of food, your body can prioritise metabolising the food before the alcohol, slowing alcohol breakdown in your system. There are many myths, including the idea that sleep alone makes you fine.
MC: There was something we were made aware of a few years ago at a conference. Around everybody is different. The way you metabolise alcohol varies completely between people and even on different days. Some effects are not always felt.
At this particular conference, we were all staying in the same hotel the night before. We may or may not have had a few drinks. We had a speaker from an alcohol testing company, so we decided to test ourselves during the event.
Most of us were still over the limit at lunchtime, and we had not even had that much the night before. The smallest person was sober first. It varies greatly.
MH: There were 27,000 convictions last year for drink driving. That affects your vocational licence, your ability to drive, take your kids to school, and get to work. There is a massive stigma attached. There were approximately 1,800 deaths on the road linked to alcohol and drugs, and there is a growing issue with drug-impaired driving.
ME: Finally, one more card:
Audience: Jack of Diamonds, Myth 43: "Running late is just part of the job."
SS: Running late is something we have all experienced, and it increases risk because it pushes us towards speeding and taking chances, increasing exposure to accidents.
It also raises the question of why we are not better equipped to manage that feeling of being late. If you're running late for something out of your control, you should still carry on safely and within the law.
From a management perspective, there can be pressure placed on drivers to meet times. We need to consider what driving culture we are creating. Yes, we want drivers to be timely, but at what cost? Safety must come first.
MC: There's also a "five-minute late calculation." If you're five minutes late setting off in a 30 mph urban area for a three-mile journey, you'd need to drive at about 172 miles an hour to make it up. It's not realistic, and it barely changes your arrival time, but it increases risk significantly.
There are also concerns about whether businesses are pressuring drivers to meet unrealistic schedules, but equally, some drivers try to beat schedules even when companies are not enforcing that pressure. That behaviour, whether driven by management or not, is not acceptable.
MH: Absolutely. As regulatory lawyers dealing with health and safety compliance, if it were to be shown that van fleet delivery drivers, or anybody on the road, are being incentivised to get to a drop, deliver, and get back to get another drop, that could be a major issue if that driver were to be involved in a fatal incident. That system would be investigated.
That has largely been addressed in the HGV world, but less so in the van fleet world. That is something that needs to be addressed, because we are still hearing about pay per drop. That can do nothing but place pressure on those drivers to earn that extra 50p or £1 a drop. So think very carefully, if you are fleet managers or contracting employees, not to build in those types of incentives.
AM: In one of my operational roles, one of the areas of business we dealt with was refuse collection for local authorities, and we had a very high collision rate, lots of wing mirror knocks and all sorts of incidents. When I started to investigate it and speak to the drivers, what became clear was that they were rushing.
It wasn't necessarily that they had an unrealistic amount of work to do, but there was a culture that had developed. If they finished their last round early, their day finished. So the mindset became, "If I can finish at two rather than four by speeding, missing a road out, or not always putting bins back where they should be, I can go home early."
That culture had built up over time. We changed the policy to say you are employed from 8 until 4. So if you finish your last collection at 2, you come back to the depot and you do yard work, storage work, or other duties, because that is your working day.
As a result, those rounds took longer going forward, but our collision rate came down significantly in a very short period of time. So there are things you can do as a business to make sure, and it is not always about unrealistic scheduling. Sometimes it is about changing the driver's internal monologue and mindset. It is about culture, and that is something we can all work on and improve in our businesses.
ME: Thank you very much, panel. Please give the panel a massive round of applause for elaborating on our MythBusters.
At the start, you would have noticed that I shuffled the cards and gave the lady sitting here the opportunity to say stop at any moment. You stopped at different points and we had a few cards selected. I also made a prediction before we started, which has been in full view the whole time.
First of all, could you please confirm what your playing card was?
Audience: Four of Clubs.
ME: The Four of Clubs. And if we turn over the first prediction, you will see it is the Four of Clubs.
Then we had the Ace of Clubs.
The Ace of Clubs. And there we have the Ace of Clubs.
Then we had the Five of Hearts.
The Five of Hearts. And there we go, we have the Five of Hearts.
And hopefully we have a full house. It is going to go absolutely wild in here. The Jack of Diamonds.
The Jack of Diamonds. And we have the Jack of Diamonds, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much.
Now we are going to do something a little bit different.
We are moving away from the MythBusters. We all make decisions, whether we are driving to work or driving day to day. Sometimes we have to make sudden decisions. Whether that is something happening in front of you while driving, you have to make a split-second choice. It is not always the right choice. We are only human, we do not always get it right.
Even if we see something happen further ahead that gives us time to react, we still do not always make the correct choice. As I said, we are only human.
I am going to demonstrate something now about awareness and someone making an instant decision. I am going to bring somebody up from the audience.
You, mate, would you mind coming up? Give him a round of applause, ladies and gents. What is your name?
Audience: Nathan.
Okay, Nathan.
So Nathan, we have a padlock and a hitch, and you have a ring there, I believe. Could I borrow it, if that is all right?
[laughter]
Well, it is your own fault, mate. You should not have got involved.
Now we are going to place that onto the padlock like so. Can you confirm that is completely locked?
I am going to get you to leave that on there for me. Now Nathan, one of these keys opens that padlock. In a moment, you are going to make an instant decision on choosing the correct key.
And it's going to be my job to try to influence you as well. But there is one added twist on my behalf, ladies and gents, and that is that all the keys are going to be in your possession the whole time.
So I'm just going to take the keys off the key fob here. And what I'm going to get you to do, Nathan, is when I hand you these keys, so that I cannot see, I want you to place them behind your back for me.
Place all the keys behind your back. And if you think I've given them to you in any particular order, I want you to mix them up in your hands for me.
Whenever you're ready. In fact, Stefan, would you mind helping me out with this one, please? I don't want to get too much involved here.
Whenever you're ready, I want you to hand one key back to me.
Are you happy with your decision?
Remember at this moment, ladies and gentlemen, I have given you the option to change your mind.
Stefan, I want to give you this key. Would you mind attempting that in the lock and tell me if it opens?
It does. Excellent. Thank you.
Now, the initial thinking, ladies and gents, might be that all three keys open up that padlock.
At the start, I said it would be my job to influence Nathan to select the correct key. You made an instant decision on which key you wanted, but even when you handed it to me I asked if you wanted to change your mind, and you were adamant you wanted that key.
There was only one key that would open that padlock. There was only one key you could have chosen that would open it.
Do you want to know why, Nathan?
Because the remaining two keys you are still holding in your hand have not even been cut yet. They have not been cut. Have a look, mate. They have not even been cut, ladies and gentlemen.
Give him a massive round of applause. Unbelievable.
Nathan, you can take a seat. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Stefan, for taking part there.
Now, could somebody come up and join me? What is your name? Would you mind coming up and joining me? Please give her a round of applause as she comes to the front of the stage.
What was your name again?
Alysia, okay Alysia.
We have a set of cards here. Can you confirm for the audience that they are all different and not in any particular order?
Are you happy?
We are going to split the cards like this. In a moment I am going to get you to mix them, but first, do you want to shuffle them before we start or are you happy?
Let's shuffle.
You always get one.
Go ahead and give them a little mix up.
That's enough. That's enough.
Place them down there.
Are you happy that is completely fair?
I am going to get you to choose any pile you like. Which pile would you like?
I'm going to show you what to do first, then I'll get you to do it.
Cut any portion of cards you like, turn them over, and place them on the mat.
You can cut wherever you like. Turn them over.
Lovely.
Now I'm going to shuffle those face-up cards into the face-down cards like this.
Are you happy we have some face-up and some face-down?
Now do the same with this pile. Lift any portion you like, turn them over, and place them on top.
Are you happy?
We are going to do the same again with this pile, mixing it in.
Now we have some face-up and some face-down here as well.
Do you want to do it one more time or are you happy they are mixed?
One final step. I'm going to mix this pile into this one, so now we have a complete mess.
Are you happy with that?
Now I want you to separate the face-up cards from the face-down cards and make two piles for me.
All face-down cards on this side, all face-up cards on that side, one by one.
Talk amongst yourselves, ladies and gents, while we do this.
I think we are nearly there.
Lovely.
Let's go back to the start.
At the very start, you shuffled the cards. If they were in any particular order, you shuffled them.
Then you shuffled both packs as you wanted. I gave you the opportunity to shuffle more if you wanted.
Then you turned over whichever piles you wanted to mix face-up and face-down, creating a complete mess.
Before we started, I made a couple of predictions.
Simon is going to help me here.
The first prediction I made is that there will be exactly 23 cards face-up.
So, could you count as you lay them down? I will count with you and we will count the cards together.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm now going to ask you to separate the red cards from the black cards for me, please, from that pile.
I also made another prediction, ladies and gentlemen, and my next prediction was that there will be exactly 14 black cards.
Could you again do the same and we'll count together?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Ladies and gentlemen.
I made one more prediction, ladies and gents. One more prediction.
We are going to see now. Let's turn it over.
We had all of the red cards, and they will be even. Could you go through and make sure that all of those red cards are even cards, please, and confirm to everyone here today?
They are all even cards.
We've got a four.
Oh, what have we got there? Seven of diamonds.
Well, this is a little awkward, ladies and gents. This isn't like Britain's Got Talent where you can cut and edit it.
I can't really take the blame because you did it, Alysia, to be honest with you.
I'm just thinking quickly on my feet. I'm going to make a quick decision, Alysia.
I think I can fix this.
Get out. [laughter]
I'm only joking, Alysia.
I did make one more prediction.
Simon, could you please put up the last one for me?
That was that all except, ladies and gentlemen, the seven of diamonds.
Thank you very much. I believe you can take a seat. Thank you very much.
Give Alysia a massive round of applause as she takes a seat. Thank you for helping out.
We have got the seven of diamonds, and if the panel wouldn't mind talking about this, this is Myth 27: We trust all our employees so we don't need to do any checks.
I'll start.
The reality is that you give people the handrails, but ultimately you need to be able to monitor that and make sure the systems are in place and those things are being followed.
Trust plays a massive role in our business relations and internal relations at work, but ultimately it only goes so far. There is a phrase in health and safety and regulation: if it isn't written down, it wasn't done.
You have to be able to set it out, evidence it, and show it to whoever needs to see it, whether that is the HSE, DVSA, police, or other authorities. Trust only goes so far, but systems give the workforce support and training.
I would also add that sometimes it is not about trust, it is about people not knowing something themselves. When we first started using DVLA licence checks at scale, we found drivers whose licences had been revoked and they had no idea.
That was because they had a speeding offence, the notice went to an old address, and they had not updated the DVLA. After a period of time, their licence was revoked without them knowing.
The same with insurance. Some drivers had no idea their insurance had been cancelled due to a missed payment. So it is not always about trust; sometimes people genuinely do not know.
Trust is a good word. We would all like to trust our drivers, but trust is earned and we all share responsibility on the roads.
It is not just trust that someone has a licence or insurance. It is about managing risk versus compliance. Trust is important, but ultimately culpability can still fall on the business.
Linked to trust, there must be management checks and audit processes. These systems are regularly checked through ISO accreditations, safety audits, and other reviews. That ensures tasks are being done and also helps identify improvements, efficiencies, and opportunities to use technology.
So there are huge benefits in those managerial checks.
Lovely. Thank you very much, panel.
Now I'm going to finish my part today by asking you all to take out your mobile phones and open your calculators.
Just give us a wave when you are ready.
I'm going to ask for some personal information. There is no way I could know this, but together we will add it into the calculator.
First, the gentleman here, your day of birth in numbers.
- Please enter 18 and multiply.
Now the lady here, the month of your birth.
- Enter 12 and multiply.
Now the gentleman here, the last three digits of your mobile number.
- Enter 97 and multiply.
We now jump to 9,952.
Now press plus.
The gentleman at the back, a random four-digit PIN code.
- Enter that and press equals.
We now jump to 27,026.
Now press plus again and enter 27014821.
Press equals.
We have now jumped to 27,420,027.
Before we continue, I couldn't possibly have known your birthdays, your mobile numbers, or even credit card details.
But by adding all of that information together, it has created a final figure.
Before we started, I wrote a prediction which has been visible the whole time.
And I wrote down exactly 27,420,27.
But it is not actually a number. It is a date: 27th April 2027, the date of next year's show.
My name is Matty Evans. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I will now hand you back to Simon.
How amazing was that? I think that is the best session we have run in six years.
That whole session was based around the Mythbusters packs. We have packs for each of you to take away. On the back is a QR code with a full guide and training resource you can use back at work with drivers.
You might not have your own in-house magician, but you can use simple card games to highlight myths and start discussions. The guide includes discussion points for every myth.
If you scan the QR code, you can download digital versions and print your own cards.
Matty is one of the most impressive magicians I have ever seen. He does private bookings and was voted wedding and events magician of the year. I would recommend booking him for events.
That is the end of our time here this year in the Driver Safety Theatre. Thank you to everyone who attended across the three days. Please collect your MythBusters packs at the back, and we look forward to seeing you next year.
