Image by Martin Holy from Pixabay
How can we better protect young drivers? That’s what tyre giants Bridgestone tried to find out in a recent UK survey that investigated public support for various measures.
There’s certainly a strong argument for making changes to existing practice. If you take a look at the Government’s fact sheets on younger drivers, you’ll find some grim statistics.
Only 7% of the UK’s licence holders are younger drivers (defined as those aged 17-24), and yet they account for 20% of road accidents involving death or serious injuries. In other words, younger drivers are massively more likely to be involved in the worst types of collisions. Young drivers are also overrepresented in less serious collisions, too.
It’s important to keep this in proportion: the vast majority of young drivers aren’t involved in any accidents and the UK has some of the safest roads in the world. Still, if there’s a way of protecting this group, it’s got to be worth considering.
So what did the Bridgestone survey find? To see a fuller breakdown of the results, we encourage you to take a look at this article in Tyre Trade News, but here are our take home points:
- 50% of those surveyed support new drivers displaying a ‘recently passed’ sign for 12 months after qualifying.
- 57% support a graduated licence, with restrictions for new drivers.
- 39% support new drivers taking a refresher course after passing their test.
- 70% think that tyre safety should be included in driver education.
What sort of restrictions could be put on new drivers?
As you can see, there’s some public support for additional restrictions on new drivers.
There are various proposals about what this could involve. Some would like to see the UK adopt similar measures to those in Australia:
Australia issues two classes of provisional licences for new drivers, P1 and P2. Each carries restrictions. P1 drivers can’t use any mobile phone function or drive between midnight and 5 am. P2 drivers ( more advanced, but still inexperienced) must display green P plates and must not drive above 100 km/hr.
However, other plenty of other measures have been suggested – the RAC lists them in this article.
In a sense, new drivers already face some restrictions, in that they are subject to harsher penalties than more experienced ones. Drivers who accumulate more than 6 points in their first two years of driving can have their licences revoked automatically.
Why such mediocre public support?
The Tyre Trade News article characterises the poll numbers as ‘strong public support for new road safety measures’. We’re not sure that we agree. Certainly, there’s a lot of support for driver education about tyre safety (70%), but when it comes to graduated licences, almost half of those surveyed were either against the idea or uncertain about it. P-plates were even less popular, with just 50% supporting the idea.
To us, this begs the question of why public support is pretty lacklustre.
Maybe it’s because the public is trying to balance up the advantages of greater safety with the restrictions on freedom these involve.
Let’s say, for example, that new restrictions forbid new drivers from carrying young passengers, or place a curfew on when they can drive. Certain states within the US have one or both measures. That could mean that an 18-year-old at University couldn’t drive themselves home, or their parents would have to pick them up from a party, or they couldn’t go on a picnic with some mates.
Where do you stand?
Balancing freedom and protection is a really tricky problem, and trying to unravel it is beyond our remit. We’ll happily leave you to contemplate where you stand.
One thing that’s uncontroversial is that new drivers need a bit of reminding about their tyres. The survey revealed that 3 out of five new drivers don’t check them. And like 70% of the public, we’re all in favour of better tyre education being added to the learning process.
The BK Tyres blog carries news, views and information on tyres and driving. BK Tyres supplies and fits tyres throughout South Oxfordshire, including the communities of Abingdon, Didcot and Henley on Thames. As an independent, family run mobile provider, we provide exceptional levels of service and affordable prices. Contact us today.