http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/mai ... whit02.xml
Driving young men sane
Measures that would reduce the death toll among young drivers are long overdue yet the authorities are unwilling to act, says John Whitmore
Road crashes are the single biggest killer of 15- to 24-year-olds in industrial countries, and more that 8,500 young drivers die in the 30 OECD nations each year. Death rates among under-25s are double those of older drivers and young men have three times the death rate of young women, more of whom die in the passenger seat than in the driving seat. The more young passengers a young driver carries, the greater the likelihood of an accident.
So young men are below-average drivers, and are at far greater risk. Yet, as with all motorists, the main problem is not so much a lack of car control skill as showing off, aggression, competitiveness, over-confidence, distraction, drugs, alcohol and fatigue. Conventional driving instruction has no effect on these things whatever. This is my starting point.
Why has nothing been done about this up to now? There are two reasons.
First, in Britain at least, there has been no clear ultimate authority on driving. The Driving Standards Agency (DSA), which trains and certifies examiners, once told me that it looks to the police for top driving expertise, but the police - the Association of Chief Police Officers Traffic Committee and Hendon police driving school - ducked that responsibility. The Transport Research Laboratory only does what its label suggests and the Department for Transport delegates to others, having little expertise of its own. So, basically, no one knows what they are doing.
Second, I and others have lobbied the police, the DSA, the Institute of Advanced Motorists, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the British School of Motoring, the High Performance Course and similarly interested driver-training organisations with solid reports and expertise for more than 20 years, yet we have met a lot of resistance, little enthusiasm and no action.
Their greatest problem has been that their expertise lies in the repetitive instruction of an obsolete method of car control and road behaviour. The psychological knowledge about beliefs and attitudes, such as those that literally consume young people, are simply outside their remit and expertise, so they minimise or ignore them.
What is being done now? The accident statistics are so stark and the attitude problem so obvious that the authorities in Britain and elsewhere are finally taking the issue seriously, and several UK and EU research and recommendation projects are under way, as I mentioned in a previous column. Many are in their early stages and only a few are complete, but since such projects have seldom progressed far or fast enough, this is not surprising.
It is the way of institutions that they wait for the completion of lengthy academic reports before they take action, even when the result is a foregone conclusion. Thus we will eventually be told that research has now proved that driver attitude is the problem, and that current teaching methods contribute nothing to resolving it. But we knew this 20 years ago, and we had the methodology for dealing with it. How many young lives might have been saved in the meantime?
We should already be setting up government-funded pilot schemes for new driver education and examination procedures that address the known problems. There are a number of highly skilled, highly experienced, hands-on experts who have worked with young people on safety issues, on attitude problems and on skills learning where attitude has an impact, who would be only too happy to work together to design such programmes in conjunction with, but not dominated by, the DSA and driving schools. These could be up and running in a few months, and their results monitored as they go. We don't have to wait for more death tolls to evaluate how such training can change attitudes. We have done it for years elsewhere.
Setting that most important issue aside, there are additional solutions. Sweden, for example, showed that by extending the recommended accompanied driver hours from 50 to 120, accidents in the first two years after licensing were reduced by 40 per cent. There are also technical ways of enforcing life-saving restrictions on young men, such as banning and electronically monitoring night driving, fitting their cars with a breathalyser-activated ignition key and restricting the age and number of passengers.
These measures might seem intrusive, but they work, and young men are inviting their introduction by default. A major objection - which I share - is that technology and legislation replace self-responsibility, which is ultimately what we must build. Yet that responsibility is not only for themselves, but for their passengers and for society as a whole. When we all behave in a mature and responsible way, Big Brother can go home.
The UK and EU projects are also exploring the feasibility of including road safety in the school curriculum, and if so who should deliver it: a teacher, safety officer, driving instructor or attitude training expert. The latter might have a beneficial impact far beyond driving, but no doubt some myopic parents would object to so-called nanny-state brainwashing.
There is also an argument for providing simple vehicles in which young teenagers can learn car control in a safe, off-road space; novice drivers on the road experience multi-tasking overload until basic car control becomes automatic and only then is any proper attention devoted to their surroundings. Such projects could be school- or community-based, perhaps sponsored by businesses with car parks that could be used in certain hours.
Finally, I return to attitude training. I was selected for the European Commission project I discussed two months ago because I am seen by some to be the leading European expert on the most advanced method of coaching for physical and other workplace skills (see
www.performanceconsultants.com). The originator of the method was the captain of the Harvard University tennis team, W Timothy Gallwey, who wrote a book called The Inner Game of Tennis. Here I offer two quotes to help understanding:
"The opponent within one's own head is more daunting than the one on the other side of the net."
"The goal of the Inner Game (real coaching) is to eliminate the internal (attitudinal) obstacles to performance, learning, and enjoyment."
I trained with Tim, founded The Inner Game in Europe and wrote a book, Coaching for Performance (published by Nicholas Brearley, now in 22 languages), that expands the application of these principles. It has taken 20 years, but this method is now coming into widespread use; since I worked with the All Blacks, New Zealand has adopted it as the primary method for all sports coaches. Coaching for Performance, which I commend to all driving instructors and their victims, is now available for £10.99 (rrp £12.99) + £1.25 p&p from Telegraph Books; call 0870 428 4112.
If you agree with what I am advocating, then please tell the authorities to which you have access, either directly or through this paper. If you disagree, please let me know why.
Sir John Whitmore welcomes responses to his monthly column, either at the bottom of this page or by post c/o the Motoring Desk, The Daily Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Members
