When Roy and Hayley Cropper celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in April 2003, he was disappointed when his present from her was driving lessons, as he was dreading ever getting behind the wheel of a car. After assiduously reading the Highway Code, practising his turning technique with a dinner plate in the cafe and being taken out by Hayley in Kevin Webster's vehicle, Roy arranged his first proper lesson but quickly cancelled on a flimsy pretext. A few weeks later, he was perturbed when instructor Alan Flowers turned up in the cafe for a rearranged lesson as he had completely forgotten the appointment.
The somewhat flamboyant Mr Flowers calmed Roy's nerves as he got into the car on Rosamund Street, especially after he put his foot down a little too quickly on the pedal and screeched away. After turning into Coronation Street, Roy totally lost his nerve and swiftly exited the car, leaving it abandoned in the middle of the road. Jason Grimshaw with Tony Stewart as a passenger, was approaching from the other direction and distracted by a comely passing blonde and spilled cassette tapes on the floor of the car, failed to realise that there was an obstruction in their way until almost too late when Jason quickly swerved to avoid Flowers' vehicle and instead crashed into the wall of the medical centre, leaving him with a fractured arm and Tony with a broken leg. Alan told Roy that as his own vehicle was undamaged, he wouldn't lose any sleep over the incident.