Contact the Telegraph
Send us your news tips, photos and videos Text LT and your message to 80360 or click here for more ways to contact us »
Report presses for greater restrictions to cut young driver carnage
12:52pm Thursday 30th October 2008
CALLS have been renewed for greater restrictions on new drivers – as it is claimed road fatalities are “the major public health problem of our age”.
In a new report from the Transport Select Committee, former Lancashire County Council leader Louise Ellman, said more needed to be done to stop the number of deaths linked to young male motorists.
She backed calls from the Lancashire Telegraph’s Wast-ed Lives Campaign that a graduated licence scheme should be introduced.
A new overhaul of the way people learn to drive is currently ongoing, but recom- mendations for increased pre-test training look set to be approved, rather than increased restrictions.
Mrs Ellman, MP for Liverpool Riverside and Transport Select Committee chairman, said: “The number of deaths and injuries on our roads far outweighs the deaths and injuries in other transport modes, or in other work-related accidents.
“We need to start seeing this not only as a collection of individual tragedies, but also as the major public health problem of our age.“ In the new report she said: “We support the Government's efforts to revise the driver training system and to place greater emphasis on attit-udes and behaviours, as well as driving skills. But we are not confident that the changes will be sufficient to arrest the carnage of young drivers on our roads.
“We recommend that the Government takes bolder and more urgent steps to cut the number of collisions invol-ving young drivers, partic-ularly young men. We urge that it reconsiders its response to our recomm-endations in the current novice drivers legislation regarding a graduated licen-sing scheme and, in particular, restrictions on young drivers carrying teenage passengers between the hours of 11pm and 5am.”
Your sayYourTelegraph
Add your comment
Register for a FREE Lancashire Telegraph account and you can have your say on today's news and sport by adding comments on articles we publish. The best comments may even get published in the paper.
Please register now or sign in below to continue.
Report presses for greater restrictions to cut young driver carnage
In this section
- New campaign launched to stop young drivers 'taking extreme risks'
- Parents put under scrutiny in road safety scheme
- Accrington sex predator admits raping girl, 12
- Zero limit drink bid for drivers under 21
- Blackburn men jailed for sex offences with girls, 14
- Backing in East Lancashire for tougher penalties for speeding drivers
- East Lancashire postmasters' relief as major contract is retained
- East Lancashire parents urged to pass on safe driving message
- Pendle MP: Make Jack Straw Transport Secretary
- One referral a day to Blackburn with Darwen child sex grooming team
Sponsored Links
Local Advertisers
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
TONY WALES, NELSON says...
3:38pm Thu 30 Oct 08
As long as young drivers think they can pass a test,
and then they become the best drivers in the world,you will always have them having a free half day out with the undertaker.
Have you ever asked a young driver "do you think you are a good driver"?
The best you can hope for is that when they are involved in a crash, they don't kill any other innocent people.
It's the parents who are left with the grief and problems. Why not let all young drivers watch the post mortem of the victim of a road traffic accident. Then they may drive slower.