Safe Speed Forums

Driving age 'must increase to 18'

The minimum driving age must be raised from 17 to 18 to stop young people "killing themselves and others", MPs have said.
The Commons transport committee also wants learner drivers to spread lessons over a year before taking the test and a complete alcohol ban for new drivers.

Novice drivers should be banned from carrying passengers aged between 10 and 20 late at night, the report adds.

The government said it would not rule out adopting the proposals.

Young driver safety was already a priority, it added.

Government figures show that one-third of road deaths involve a car driven by a person aged between 17 and 25, although this group accounts for just one in eight licence-holders.

In 1992, there were 12.6 deaths on the road for every 100,000 motorists aged 17 to 20. By 2005, the figure had risen to 19.2.

'Self-confidence'

Under the proposed changes, people could start learning to drive at 17, as is currently the case, but not take the test until they are 18.

The committee's report - Novice Drivers - says there should also be an "absolute minimum" number of hours of tuition and a "structured syllabus", rather than instructors cramming knowledge into students ahead of the test.

Training must also tackle "inflated self-confidence" by promoting "awareness of one's limitations in real driving situations".

Meanwhile, "hazard perception training", sometimes using computer simulators, should be extended, possibly to schools, to encourage better habits in young drivers-to-be.

Transport committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody, Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich, said: "The time has come for a revolutionary change."

She added: "I think some males would like to drive at 11. But the reality is that we aren't talking about people having the odd crunch... but about people killing themselves and killing others.

"The other side is a rise in the number of young people killing young people in the same car."

Curfew

The committee is calling for a zero alcohol limit for all drivers for a year after passing their test.

This group should also be banned from carrying passengers aged between 10 and 20 from 11pm to 5am, it adds.

Mrs Dunwoody said: "We cannot continue to waste young lives. The implementation of the measures in this report would go a long way to improve the safety of young and novice drivers and other road users."

Louise Ellman, a Labour member of the committee, said the proposals were about saving lives.

She added: "If we look at what's happened on the roads, road casualties are actually going down, except for that group of young new drivers where casualty rates are actually going up."

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: "Young and novice drivers remain a key priority for DfT, and that is why last February we announced a fundamental overhaul of driver training and testing.

"We are already targeting younger drivers more closely with our educational campaigns and will consult on the detail of proposals to overhaul training and testing later in the year.

"At this stage no measures have been ruled either in or out."

What do you think of the proposals? Will they improve safety standards? Are you a newly qualified driver? Send us your comments using the form below.

42. We asked the Department for Transport to provide its assessment of the economic and social costs that would be associated with a 12-month minimum learning period which would in effect raise the solo driving age to 18 years. Despite stating in its original memorandum that: "It would have a significant adverse impact"; the Department subsequently told us that actual cost assessments had yet to be undertaken.[66] The Department did, however, provide data to show the percentage of 17 year-olds taking part in its the Cohort Study who drive to and from a place of work or study, which show that 68.1% of the sample do so on at least four days a week. The research does not provide information about alternative forms of transport available for these journeys.[67]

So that is 68.1% who would be significantly dis-advantaged

Novice drivers should be banned from carrying passengers aged between 10 and 20 late at night,

Apart from the obvious difficulties in enforcing this, why should people over 20 be exempted? Will they automatically survive any crash?

* a zero alcohol limit for all drivers for a year after passing their test

- Nothing to disagree with this... though alcohol has differing effects on everyone, it can be genuinely accepted that people are less able under the influence of alcohol and so driving + drinking should never be mixed, not just for the drivers of less than 1 year.

I would say no drink 12 hours before driving... people have sobered up by then even if they do have traces.

But you can easily be over the current limit 12 hours after finishing drinking after consuming quantities that are commonplace on Friday nights in any town in Britain. Time limits alone are meaningless as they take no account of the amount consumed.

Even near-prohibitionist Sweden has a 20 mg limit, not a zero one.

The passenger limit is something I've advocated for a while, but it should apply at all times - is 10.30 pm on an icy night ok, but 11pm is dangerous ?

and so they buy a motorbike instead and what does that do to their chances of death?

I do feel somewhat optimistic that this group is at least looking at the right sorts of problems, and did not mention speed limiters, speed kills, or cameras at all, and seemed very aware that the real problem is one of driver attitude. Even if their ideas need some practical tweaking I feel we should give them some credit.