Young drivers will face much tougher driving tests before they are allowed out on the road on their own, under new government proposals.
The aim is to reduce Britain's high rates of accidents – and correspondingly high numbers of deaths and injuries among drivers under 25 years old, especially young men.
Male drivers aged 17 to 20 are almost 10 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured at the wheel than those aged 40 to 59. Men aged 17 to 19 are also three times more likely to have serious crashes then women of the same age.
Among the proposals under consideration are greater practice before being allowed to take the driving test, and better education at school about road safety. The government believes that often it is a problem of attitude more than ability (or the lack of it).
Extending the current 40-minute practical driving test to include elements of night driving, and driving on different categories of road is likely. We reckon that higher-quality roads, and better policing of them, would also help reduce deaths and injuries.
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