Although Ian Brannan has not yet completed his diploma in journalism, he was the first to graduate this past fall of Discovery Channel’s television program Canada’s Worst Driver.
The objective of the show is to change a bad driver’s skill and help them become a good driver.
For the tenth season, eight drivers were chosen out of 500 applicants to appear on the show.
There, the producers found the worst of the worst.
Among them included a professional taxi driver – 33-year-old Ian Brannan, who attended Algonquin College’s journalism program in winter 2014.
Brannan knew he had to be on the show after being in six accidents over a nine-month period.
Four of the accidents were with non-moving objects including a stop sign and a fire hydrant.
He has written off two of his private vehicles to the tune of $15, 000. Reversing a vehicle has always been a problem for him.
“I might be Canada’s worst reverse driver,” said Brannan. “It’s balanced by a better forward driving.”
One of Brannan’s former classmates commented on his driving.
“He wasn’t that bad when I was driving with him,” said second-year journalism student Brian Craddock.
Fortunately, Brannan was alone in all of the accidents that has been in.
Other people make him more cautious of his actions.
“I’m less likely to damage a borrowed car or a rental car or the company vehicle,” said Brannan.
Largely, Brannan graduated from the show because of a list he brought to the judges’ panel attention. It had a list of problems that showed Brannan’s awareness of his poor driving skill.
Adam Wemp, Brannan’s friend, nominated him at his request, because he couldn’t nominate himself.
“They kept beating the dead horse about Ian being a professional driver,” said Wemp. “He’s some schmuck who happens to know enough about Kingston to be able to drive people from Point A to B.”
Wemp went on to explain that they tried to make it clear that there was no professional driving aspect to being a cab driver in Kingston.
Brannan is accident-free since January 2014. He has aspired to be a safer driver and has used tips from the show in everyday driving. He claims to have gained adequacy in reversing but he still has things he has to work on, such as his lead foot.
Brannan had an overall pleasurable time on the show. His favourite part was driving the Cadillac CTS-V.
Funnily enough, his dad, also a professional driver, taught him to drive. He’s a school bus driver and trainer in Edmonton.
“The skill level seems to fly off the branches and away from me,” said Brannan.
Brannan is currently a taxi driver, as he resumed taxi work in July 2014.