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Spate of road deaths revives call to raise driving age limit
Mark Townsend, crime correspondent
Sunday October 22, 2006
The Observer

Another teenage road death provoked fresh demands yesterday for the driving age limit to be raised and tougher penalties for dangerous motorists.

In the latest tragedy, a 16-year-old girl was killed when a car mounted a pavement and struck a group of youngsters standing outside a shop in Norwich. Police were last night questioning a 17-year-old on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving over the incident early yesterday.

Her death came hours after 19-month-old Billy Donnelly was killed when a stolen car mounted a pavement in south London and crushed his pram. Last night his parents, Sharon Wilson and Dennis Donnelly, said in a statement: 'We are devastated. We would like to expressly thank all the emergency servicesl who worked so hard to save him. We would also like to thank all the well-wishers who have been laying flowers at the scene for the kindness they have shown.' Earlier, Ms Wilson wept as she read tributes left at the crash site.

Three teenagers were seen running from the scene. Last night, a 14-year-old boy arrested near the scene was released on bail until December while another boy, also 14, remained in police custody.

Campaigners called on the government to raise the driving licence age from 17 to 18, with a one-year minimum training period and pointed to the disproportionate number of young male drivers involved in road deaths.

Men aged 17 to 20 account for three per cent of drivers but make up a third of convictions for dangerous driving while studies suggest that young men are almost 10 times more likely to be killed than experienced motorists.

Cathy Keeler, head of campaigns for Brake, the road safety charity, said the latest incidents would exert renewed pressure on the government to tackle the behaviour of young male motorists. 'We would like to see the government doing more to educate young drivers about the risks and the police given more resources to catch illegal drivers and remove all types of dangerous drivers from the road,' she said.

The group's forthcoming Road Safety Week will focus, for the first time, on young male drivers. Studies suggest that raising the driving age could cut annual road deaths by as many as 1,000. In response to the growing concern, the Crown Prosecution Service recently launched a review aimed at preventing motorists who kill escaping with lenient sentences.

Pictures released yesterday of Billy Donnelly graphically underlined the dangers posed by young teenagers. They show him lying alongside his baby brother, 10-week-old Luke, who was also in the pram hit by the stolen vehicle but who was unhurt.

Alerted by the screams of their mother who was pushing the pram, residents took five minutes to drag the vehicle from Billy. Although they managed to resuscitate him, he died in hospital shortly after the accident at 1pm on Friday. However, there was anger in the local community that their warnings of joyriders had not been heeded with one resident claiming stolen vehicles had sped around the area for more than a decade.

The stolen Jeep Wrangler that killed Billy struck a tree before ramming the pushchair and the incident occurred just 500 metres from where a 13-year-old boy was killed by a joyrider in 2003. Jamie Hussey was out collecting conkers with friends when he was hit by a 14-year-old riding a motorbike.

A Home Office spokesman said it 'shared the public's concerns about bad driving' and that two new offences - causing death by careless driving and by driving while unlicensed - were included in the road safety bill, which is due to become law next July.

The CPS, meanwhile, is attempting to eradicate 'undercharging' dangerous drivers in England and Wales.

· Four young men aged between 19 and 21 were killed in a head-on collision in the Irish Republic just after 2am yesterday. All four came from Three Mile House in Monaghan.

So a 14 year old in a stolen car causes a fatal crash and they want to raise the driving age limit?

Maybe they should lower the age at which you can get imprisoned for stealing a car, AND allow severe penalties for fleeing from the police in a vehicle - then ring-fence the money from all motoring fines for MORE traffic police.