Brake’s response to the Transport Select Committee’s inquiry on Novice Drivers
All queries about this consultation document should be addressed to Rachel Burr, campaigns officer at Brake, the road safety charity.
Tel: 01484 550085, e-mail:
Risk among young and novice drivers
§ The majority of novice drivers are young. Young drivers are more at risk of being involved in a crash than any other age group – DfT research estimates that young drivers have between three and four times more crashes than older experienced drivers[1].
§ Young drivers are also more at risk of dying on the road:
Analysing the 10,238 car occupant deaths between 1997 and 2002 (6,749 drivers, 3,489 passengers), DfT research found that:
o 28% of drivers involved in crashes where at least one car occupant died were in the 20 to 29 age group. A further 14% were 19 or under.
o the peak age group for driver fatalities was 20 to 24 - 17% of male driver fatalities and 13% of female driver fatalities were in this age group
o the peak age group for passenger fatalities was 16 to 19 - 32% of male passenger fatalities and 18% of female passenger fatalities were in this age group [2]
In 2005, one in eight car drivers (13%) was under 25[3], but one in three drivers who died on our roads (32%) were in this age group, up from 29% in 2004.[4]
Age and inexperience
The younger and more inexperienced a driver is, the greater their crash risk.
TRL’s Cohort Study showed that 18% of all new drivers were involved in at least one crash within one year of passing their test. This fell to 13% in the second year and 10% in the third year. 18% of drivers who were aged between 17 and 19 years when they passed their test were involved in a road crash in their first year of driving, whereas only 12% of drivers who were aged over 25 years when they passed their test had an crash in their first year of driving.[5] This highlights the effect of age on crash risk.
Inexperience also effects driver risk . For 17 year old drivers, one year’s driving experience reduced their crash risk by 38%, for 18 year-old drivers the reduction was 35% and for 19 year-old drivers the reduction was 32%.The crash risk of a 25 year-old novice driver decreased by 20% after one year’s driving experience, a 30 year-old novice driver’s crash risk decreased by 12%[6].
Together, increasing age and driving experience produce reductions in crash risk. Overall, the crash risk of 17 year old novice drivers reduces by 43% after their first year of driving. For 18 year-old drivers, the reduction is 40%, for 19 year-olds it is 38%. [7]
Young driver attitudes
Young drivers differ from older drivers in their attitudes towards driving. Young drivers report a greater enjoyment of driving and are more likely to drive for pleasure. They get a stronger sense of personal identity or status from driving; this includes feelings of pride, power, and confidence.[8]
Young drivers, especially young male drivers, are also more likely to seek thrills from driving, are more fearless and more compliant with peer pressure.[9]
Young male drivers are also far more likely to indulge in competitive behaviour by driving dangerously around other vehicles. Between 1999 and 2003, 17-18 year-old males had 70% more crashes involving “interaction or competition with other road users” than 30-59 year-old male drivers.[10]
Young drivers have a high opinion of their own skills on the road and rate their own performance as above average.[11] They are also more likely to equate ‘good’ driving with the ability to master the controls of the car at higher speeds.[12]
The above attitudes make young drivers more inclined to take risks on the road, such as driving fast, accelerating hard and cornering at high speed.[13]
Driver education
Currently, road safety education is not compulsory in schools and colleges. Therefore, by the time young people begin to learn to drive, they may be ignorant of the risks we all face on the roads, and will not be knowledgeable about how driver behaviour contributes to these risks. They may not have acquired a basic knowledge and understanding of road risk and road safety, and this may have a negative affect on their attitude to driving and therefore the likelihood of their taking risks on the road.
Brake strongly recommends that road safety become part of the national curriculum. At all stages of development, children should be educated about the risks they face on the roads, given comprehensive information about safety on and around the roads, and informed about what they can do to minimise the risks. This would address dangerous young driver attitudes before they develop, and replace them with safer attitudes to driving. Currently, Brake uses trained volunteers to deliver road safety presentations to young people. Feedback on this education suggests that young people take on engage with the presentation and consider the advice to be memorable, with many pledging to use what they have learnt by driving safely.
By making anti-drug education compulsory in schools in 2000, the Government clearly demonstrated that it accepts the importance of compulsory education on issues which lead to dangerous, antisocial behaviour. Brake urges the Government to extend this approach to road safety education.
Brake would also like to see greater investment in road safety advertising aimed at young drivers and passengers. Just £15 million per year is spent on the Department for Transport’s Think! publicity campaign, with no more than a tiny proportion of that budget – £350,000 – specifically targeting young drivers.[14] This is put into perspective by the fact that the average value of the benefit of preventing a death on the is £1.384,463 million.[15]
Brake urges the Government to provide year-round, high-profile, hard-hitting campaigns on television and in cinemas aimed specifically at young drivers. Occasional campaigns are not enough to raise the profile of this issue and hit home the real risks young people face.
Driver licensing
Brake believes that the existing practical and theory tests do not go far enough in identifying safe driver behaviour and risk awareness.
The current theory test could be improved by including more questions on the risks drivers face and pose on the road. For example, drivers should have to know how their speed will affect survival chances of a pedestrian if they hit someone, and should be aware of the chances of dying of the road. Making drivers fully aware of the potential consequences of bad driving encourages them to alter their behaviour accordingly.
There is currently no minimum learning period or requirement for professional tuition, which means novice drivers may obtain a full driver licence within weeks of turning 17, without adequate tuition and with very little experience.
The existing single 40 minute test of practical skills is inadequate in identifying whether someone is a safe driver. It does not test a driver’s ability to drive in different levels of traffic, in the dark, in different weathers, or on the motorway.
Brake urges the Government to adopt a three-stage graduated driver licence (learner, novice and full licence holder) or GDL, structured as follows:
Stage one – learner (displaying red ‘L’ plates)
Drivers should hold a learner’s licence for a minimum of 12 months, before taking the practical driving test, theory test and hazard awareness test. A minimum learning period of 12 months ensures that drivers are both older and more experienced before being able to take their test. It also allows learners to gain experience in all seasons and in all types of weather.
Learner drivers should undergo a minimum of 10 hours professional tuition in a car with dual controls. All learning should be monitored through a mandatory logbook.
Currently, non-professional accompanying drivers must be 21 or over and must have held a full licence for three years, but Brake recommends that the minimum age of accompanying drivers should be raised to at least 25 to ensure that they do not fall into the high-risk age group of 17-24 years old. Accompanying drivers should have held a full driving licence for at least five years and should have a clean driving licence. This would help to prevent drivers who take dangerous risks on the road from passing their dangerous habits and attitudes on to learner drivers. Drivers wishing to accompany a learner driver should register themselves as ‘approved accompanying drivers’, by completing a questionnaire to prove their suitability, which could be checked by their insurer.
Learner drivers should have the same restrictions placed upon them as in stage two (see below).
Stage two – novice/provisional (displaying green ‘P’ plates)
Drivers should hold a ‘novice’ licence for a minimum of two years after passing a practical driving test.
Novice drivers should be allowed to drive unsupervised, but there should be certain restrictions on their driving to limit their exposure to high-risk situations, including:
§ Novice drivers should not drive on motorways
§ Novice drivers should be restricted in the size of engine they can drive. The Government should seek specialist advice on what size engines should be restricted.
§ Novice drivers should not be able to carry passengers who are under 21 unless supervised by an accompanying driver who is over 25 and has held a full drivers licence for three years or more. Research confirms that the already high crash rate for 16-19 year-olds driving alone is greatly increased when young passengers are present. The more young passengers, the higher the risk. With two or more passengers, the fatal crash risk for 16-19 year-old drivers is more than five times than when driving alone.[16] Parents who are novice drivers and need to carry their own children or other dependants should be exempt from this restriction.
§ Novice drivers should not drive between 11pm and 5am unless supervised. Young drivers have a higher proportion of crashes in the evenings and early mornings,[17] when they are most likely to be drunk or drugged. Driving at night requires specific skills, extra concentration and extreme care. Between the hours of 2am and 5am, male drivers are 17 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a road crash than male drivers of all ages.[18]
§ During the novice driver period, drivers should be required to take a further 10 hours of professional tuition, during which they are required to drive on motorways and at night.
NB. Brake would support a lower drink-drive limit for novice drivers than at present, but believes that as in Sweden, all drivers, including novice drivers, should have a drink drive limit of BAC 0.02, because research has shown that even a small amount of alcohol can impair your driving. Compared to drivers of all ages, young drivers aged 17-19 are ten times as likely to have a drink-drive crash and young drivers aged 20-24 are four and a half times as likely to have a drink-drive crash per mile driven (17-19 year olds have 41 drink-drive crashes and 20-24 year olds have 18 drink-drive crashes per 100 million miles driven, compared to all drivers, who have 4 drink-drive crashes per 100 million miles driven). [19] It is therefore essential that the message to young drivers is that they must not have a single drink and drive - a lower drink-drive limit for all would help get this message across.
Stage three – full licence
Drivers should only be able to apply for a full licence after holding a novice licence for a minimum of two years. They will be required to pass a second driving practical, theory and hazard awareness test to help ensure their level of safe driving is consistent on all types of roads, including motorways.
GDL – evidence that it works
The UK Government has stated that research indicates that extending the learning period would lead to a reduction in the number of casualties on our roads. A six-month minimum learning period is estimated to save about 900 casualties each year, about 120 of which would be deaths and serious injuries. The longer the minimum learning period, the greater the casualty savings would be. [20]
Examples of GDL systems introduced in other countries suggest that graduated driver licensing system like the one outlined above would lead to a dramatic reduction in the number of deaths and serious injuries of young people on our roads. This system would enable drivers to gain experience on ALL types of roads, and over a period of time to ensure that they are skilled before being allowed to drive in the higher risk situations. It would also mean that drivers were at least 20 years old before they were able to hold a full driving licence.
A graduated licensing system has been successfully adopted in a number of other countries with the effect of reducing young driver casualties:
New Zealand
New Zealand’s multi-stage GDL, the first in the world, was introduced in 1987. Prior to that date, a full car licence could be obtained at age 15 after passing written, oral and practical tests. Before May 1999 GDL applied only to people under 25 but it now covers novice drivers of all ages.
Learner’s permit
· Minimum age for holding learner’s permit is 15
· Must be held for 6 months minimum
· Learner must always be accompanied by supervisor (a licence holder aged 20 or older who has held a licence for 2 years or more) in front seat
· A maximum blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.03 applies
· Learners must carry their learner licence when driving
· Violations result in extensions to learner period of up to 6 months
· Must display L-plates