The charity Brake is so concerned about the behaviour of young drivers that it is demanding action.
Young drivers should be subject to a night-time curfew to reduce the risk of accidents, a safety group has said.
Excuse me!?
This little piece of Draconian authoritarian kneejerkism is because:
A survey to coincide with Road Safety Week said a third of young drivers have been in a car while the driver was racing a friend.
Half of them break the speed limit by at least 10 mph and one in five drive while drunk, the survey suggested.
It also found that one in 10 young people aged between 15 and 24 drive under the influence of drugs.
Brake says learners should have to have lessons for a set period before taking their test, and says that when they have passed they must accept restrictions on the number of passengers they can carry.
While Brake’s concern and outrage are understandable, the suggestion that all young drivers be treated like offenders is a mindset that has been encouraged by the poisonous right dishonourable Blair – and, indeed, this recommendation is worthy of his second rate thinking.
Let’s go back to December 1980. I was 22 years old and I had just passed my driving test on the first attempt. Now, according to Brake’s flaky thinking, I was a dangerous influence on the roads that needed to be controlled by curfew purely by dint of my age. Except that, nine months previously I had passed my Institute of Advanced Drivers motorcycle test and during the summer had joined the RAC/ACU training scheme as an instructor. I have never raced on the roads, I have never driven under the influence of drink or drugs. Yet, according to these imbeciles, my age made me dangerous.
Sure, in some cases their concerns are justified. If people are caught, they should be subject to suitably punitive punishment. To punish all young drivers for the behaviour of the few, though, is abhorrent. During my years as a driving instructor I was privileged to teach many young people to drive and I was satisfied that most would go out onto the roads and be responsible road users. There were others who I knew would be a menace because of their attitude, not their age.
Kathy Keeler, head of road safety campaigns for Brake, said a system of slowly gaining a driving licence over the course of two to three years would be ideal.
For some, yes. For others; no. Driving is a complex skill that needs to be tailored to the needs of the individual. Trying to apply a formula in a simplistic attempt to curb the excesses of youth combined with inexperience is simply antediluvian thinking applied by the slow of wit.