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Teens could face tougher L-tests to cut road deaths...
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| Teenagers face tougher
driving tests under Government plans to reduce road deaths. *1
They could have to complete a longer test and take school lessons on safe
driving to prove they are ready to become competent and responsible
motorists. |
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| Ministers want to cut the
carnage caused by young drivers who are often over-confident on the
roads. The clampdown comes after a Daily Mail campaign for tougher
action against reckless drivers. Male drivers aged 17 to 19 are ten
times more likely to have an accident than those over 30. |
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| Men aged 17 to 20 account for
3 per cent of the driving population but 33 per cent of convictions for
dangerous driving. Under the plans, *2
students as young as 14 would be taught the principals of safe driving at
school. |
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| The practical driving test
could be extended *3
from 40 minutes to 80, and taken over two stages. It could include
candidates being examined driving at night and on motorways. |
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| Ministers have, however,
ruled out putting limits on how much driving newly qualified young drivers
can do. *4
There has been speculation they could be subject to a curfew or limits on
the number of passengers they could carry. |
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| The Government has also
stopped short of raising the driving age from 17 to 18, *5
despite claims by campaigners that this could save 1,000 lives a
year. In fact, those as young as 16 could be allowed behind the
wheel as learners. |
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| The Government is said to be
examining the Swedish system *6
in which learner drivers accumulate 120 hours of practice driving
before they attempt the test. The plans are being considered by the
Driving Standards Agency and proposals could be announced by the
Government within weeks. |
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| It estimates nearly 38,800
people are killed or injured each year in collisions involving at least
one driver with less than two years' post-test experience. *7
Young women are far less likely to have serious crashes, with only 276
deaths and injuries last year among those aged 17 to 19, compared with 869
among young men. |
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| Robin Cummins, former chief
driving examiner for the Driving Standards Agency and now road safety
consultant to the BSM driving school, said: *8
'Extending the test... even by as little as five minutes... gives a far
better idea of a candidate's driving ability. The current test is
pretty good as it is, but it only goes so far. We need to get the
importance of road safety across to young people as soon as possible by
instructing them in schools.' |
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| The campaign to raise the
driving age to 18 was supported by a coalition of insurance, motoring and
road safety groups spearheaded by the Association of British Insurers. |
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| But Road Safety Minister
Stephen Ladyman said it would be unfair to young people who needed cars to
travel to work or college. He said the Government wanted
'fundamental changes' to the process of learning to drive. 'We have
developed this attitude that you first learn to pass the test and then you
learn to drive. *9
It's an option to have more formal training. We have to debate
whether there should be some level of compulsion.' |
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| Tory transport spokesman
Chris Grayling welcomed the proposals but added: 'We also think that there
is a case for introducing a graduated driving licence which would mean
that newly qualified drivers would have to get some experience on the road
before being eligible to drive high-powered cars.' |
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| Comment.
It is difficult to comment on this type of article because so much of it
is based on short sound-bites from a variety of sources. However,
quite a few of these do invite some comment. But the main questions
are... should making driving tests more difficult be a priority? and will
this make any significant difference to the accident rate? Answer to
both is... No! |
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| *1.
Longer tests and school lessons will prove nothing! Young drivers
will quickly develop their own attitudes and style of driving based on the
influence of their peers and the general road culture. |
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| *2.
An absolute waste of time! If you want to teach them anything...
teach them how to protect themselves... as a pedestrian... or as a
cyclist... something which is relevant to them at that period of their
lives. Teach them about car safety at 14 or 15 and it will be
completely forgotten by the time they reach 17 or 18. |
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| *3.
In theory, not necessarily a bad idea. However, driving examiners
are already fully booked... if you are going to double their workload then
you will also need to double the number of driving examiners... or people
will end up waiting years for a test. Will they have these new
examiners in place on time? Don't bank on it! |
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| *4.
Something they already do under some 'Graduated Licence' schemes... and
which does show some results. |
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| *5.
Absolute tripe! which has been repeated many times in the Daily
Mail. They have extracted this figure from an Official Report which
originally claimed... up to 1,000 deaths "or injuries"... which
would equate to maybe 80-90 deaths and a variety of injuries... not 1,000
deaths!! |
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| *6.
Having a compulsive number of hours means that people will have to keep
'Logs'... which can easily be forged... or you have to go through an
official driving school... which makes it horrendously expensive.
Their biggest problems stem from a whole variety of 'illegal
drivers'. This system will put the law-abiding majority to
additional inconvenience and expense and do nothing to tackle major
problem areas. |
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| *7.
I'm really not sure where they dig up these figures??? they just don't
seem to add up. According to them... men and women aged 17-19
account for 1145... but there is a total of 38,800 killed of injured
involving inexperienced drivers. That leaves 37,655 people who are
their victims... or are inexperienced drivers in their 20's and 30's???? |
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| *8.
I'm not sure exactly what this person thinks a driver will do in the extra
five minutes that they didn't do in the previous 40 minutes which will
give the examiner a "far better idea of a candidate's driving
ability"... it might show them something they hadn't previously
noticed... it might not. What you really need to know is... will
they continue to drive in this manner once you have passed them? You
can only know this when/if they are observed out on the road... post-test. |
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| *9.
Again, a waste of time! The main problem is not a lack of initial
training for the law-abiding majority. It is... a very large number
of illegal drivers... and the fact that new drivers become over-confident
and take too many risks. When nothing is done to change their
behaviour during this post-test period then risk-taking can develop into
reckless behaviour... often with tragic results. |
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| Answer. |
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| 1.
Compulsory use of P-plates so new drivers can easily be identified. |
| 2.
Crackdown on all illegal activity. |
| 3.
No more than 3 or 4 passengers. |
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Not able to use high-powered cars. |
| 5.
'Curfew' restrictions... if the driver becomes a problem. |
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| For details on
all these issues see "Graduated
Licences". |
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