ABI urges government to publish green paper after report on young driver dangers

The ABI is calling on the government to publish its green paper into young driver safety, after the Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned a damning report on the danger posed by new young motorists.

The Novice Drivers Evidence Review and Evaluation said the over-representation of young novice drivers in road injury statistics is a public health risk in the UK.

Twenty-two percent of fatalities on the UK’s roads in 2011 occurred in collisions involving a driver aged 17 to 24 years old.

In 65% of these collisions, the fatal injuries were sustained by passengers or road users other than the young driver.

At a meeting between insurers and the government earlier this year, the DfT said it would publish a green paper containing proposals to curb young driver crashes this spring.

The director general of the ABI, Otto Thoresen, said: “Too many young people are dying or suffering catastrophic injury because of our unreformed young driver rules in the UK.

“This new government-commissioned research is compelling and shows reform can prevent 24 families a day going through tremendous trauma and heartache. 

“The government should act now and publish its green paper into young driver safety and we urge all political parties to support comprehensive reform to make our roads safer.”

The report said the key contributory factors to the problem are youth and inexperience and made recommendations to tackle the issue.

These include a variation on existing pre-driver education and training for those under 17 years old, graduated driver licensing (GDL) and changes to the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act (1995).

The ABI has campaigned to change the way young people learn how to drive and has proposed a package of reforms, including the GDL, which if implemented in full, could reduce young driver premiums by 15–20%. 

The organisation is also calling for further measures to be implemented, such as a one-year minimum learning period, limiting the number of passengers allowed in a car with a new young driver, curfew on night-time driving and zero tolerance on alcohol, for drivers aged between 17 and 24.