Ministers accused of dithering over road safety

ABI director-general Otto Thoresen has accused the government of dithering for the past five years over improving the safety of young drivers.  

In his keynote speech at today’s ABI motor conference, Thoresen told delegates that it was half a decade since the ABI had published a report with road safety charities and the RAC Foundation outlining a series of a measures to curb young driver accidents.

These included a minimum learning period before sitting a driving test and encouraging young motorists to avoid driving at night.

But Thoresen, who also announced the ABI’s new ‘tough love’ package for young drivers in his speech, said that none of the measures proposed in the report had been implemented.

He said: “Five years have passed with a lack of substantive government action on young drivers. I do not want to be standing here in five years time, reporting on little or no progress again.

“We recognise that this Government wants to cut regulation and that is a good thing. But sometimes good public policy outcomes do require regulatory intervention.

“Though the Government were right to focus on education and enforcement as part of their Strategic Framework on Road Safety, they must take further action, perhaps through some of the ideas I have mentioned today. Only then, can the industry improve our offering to young consumers. “

Thoresen said, by contrast, that the insurance industry had taken a number of steps on its own initiative to tackle motor issues, such as funding the recent Continuous Insurance Enforcement advertising campaign.

He also defended insurers against accusations that they are charging exorbitant rates for motor insurance. Despite last year’s big hike in average motor premiums, he said that once inflation had been taken into account, average premiums were 26% below what drivers were paying in 2000.