As an advanced motor cycle instructor I would pass on my experience\expertise to all my pupils and I would make sure they carried out these safety checks. Turning left from a side road, onto a main road and being confronted by an oncoming vehicle on the wrong side of the carriageway is a very common causation regarding fatal incidents, as is being hit by idiots that think there cars are faster than their mates and 'amber gamble' at traffic lights.
I might be a bore, but I'm a very experienced bore