New Learner Driver Safety

The recent proposal to make learning to drive a lot tougher in an attempt to improve safety of British roads, among young people, have allegedly been abandoned by the government.

These changes would have meant that a probationary licence would have been introduced for the first year, then a curfew on young people driving late at night and also mandatory lessons on how to drive on motorways. Though the plans have been scrapped due to the fact they would restrict the lives of young drivers too much.

According to statistics from the Department for Transport, over a fifth of deaths on the road in Britain two years ago in 2012, involved drivers that were aged from 17 to 24. The government hoped that new regulations regarding driving lessons would reduce these figures significantly, as people would be spending a longer number of hours learning how to drive, becoming familiar with roads and gaining confidence.

Other restrictions that were proposed by the government included a curfew between the hours of 10pm and 5am, unless there was somebody over 30 also in the vehicle, along with a ban on the use of a mobile phone whilst driving, including hands free mobiles and also a lower drink driving limit.

The Department of Transport however was concerned that the changes would impinge on the lives of young drivers and cause problems with them getting to educational activities, work and training and leisure activities, which would potentially increase the costs they would have to pay and could also restrict them with regards to job opportunities.

According Neil Greg of the Institute of Advanced Motorists however, he explained that road deaths cost around £16,000,000,000 each year to the economy, so the improvement of safety for the highest risk driving group would have actually helped the economy.

The reaction from other driver training companies and other motoring groups have been mixed. Most have expressed that they regret that the additional educational parts of the changes, like driving instruction on motorways, have been abandoned by the government, whilst they have also commented that the restrictions on freedom for young people were actually set to go too far.