QUALIFIED: Brake make safety plea
Current training procedures for new drivers are failing to produce safe and law-abiding motorists, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) have insisted.
Figures obtained from the DVLA show that 30,850 male drivers and 9,758 female drivers aged 20 or under have up to six points on their licence.
Statistics also show that during 2012, young drivers were involved in a fifth of all collisions where someone was killed or seriously injured.
This is despite younger drivers only accounting for 8% of all full licence holders in Great Britain, driving around half the distance of older drivers each year.
Simon Best, Chief Executive of the IAM, said: “Such high numbers committing a wide range of offences demonstrates the inability of our current system to deal with the attitudes and lack of experience which put new drivers at such high risk on the roads today.
“The government is currently working on a Green Paper for young drivers and this must better address the content and process of learning to drive so that our roads are safer for all road users.”
Ray Seagrave
( Friday, December 20, 2013 - 10:02 )
I think making such strong comments about ‘current training procedures’ need to be backed up with the full statistical facts. I.e. You are quoting total figures here instead of the figure expressed as a percentage of the driving population in that age group. If the total number of drivers in this group has risen, when expressed as a percentage the total numbers you quote may have in fact fallen. The opposite may also be true and this figure would be worse. To assess a trend you would also need to present this figure in comparisen to past years. Only then will you have a true picture of what is happening and how significant that may be and how driver training is impacting on these figures. Quoting numbers out of context only presents a less accurate or even false picture. Anything other than this is anecdotal.
Having said that. I do feel the problem is worsening. There is in fact a large amount currently being done in driver training by ADI professionals who pride themselves with not just teaching people to drive but changing attitudes and the belief systems of young drivers. It’s easy to teach a person to drive safely to pass a driving test. However, unless hearts and minds of these young drivers are changed the accidents will keep increasining. More needs to be done to help young drivers change their belief systems, their ‘driving attitude’ and coping mechanisms to drive safely for life after the test. This is where changes are currently being made in Driver Education.