Time to shake up driving laws for young motorists - Parents

Young drivers are statistically far more likely to be involved in an accident than their older peers – and they pay for this elevated risk through higher insurance premiums. It’s a harsh reality that seems unlikely to change any time soon despite a host of schemes being introduced to help safe young drivers save – from the PassPlus scheme to black box insurance.

However, maybe premiums could come down – if harsher driving laws for younger drivers were introduced.

That is exactly what a host of parents are calling for, according to comparison website Gocompare.com. It conducted a survey among 1,000 parents of 17- to 25-year-olds who have passed their tests and found 10% had children who had been in an accident requiring an insurance claim within their first year of driving – and 62% would back changes to driving laws designed to make younger drivers that bit safer.

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So what are the ideas put forward?

The survey revealed that parents would agree to the following law changes:

• 62% believe that young drivers should be restricted in the power and speed of the cars they can drive in the first year following passing their test.
• 54% believe there should be a zero alcohol drink/drive limit for drivers under the age of 20.
• 34% believe that telematics or ‘black box’ style insurance policies should be mandatory for drivers under the age of 20.
• 29% believe the minimum driving age should be increased by at least one year to 18+.

“Tougher penalties for using a mobile phone and measures to restrict the choices of younger drivers - such as their choice of car, setting a zero alcohol drink/drive limit and having their driving constantly monitored with a telematics policy - may be unpopular amongst young drivers, but if they were to reduce the number of accidents involving that age group, it may lead lower car insurance premiums,” said Matt Oliver, car insurance spokesman for the comparison website.

Raising the driving age appears to be the first choice. The minimum UK driving age of 17 has actually been in place for more than 100 years having been set in the Motor Car Act 1903 when drivers who registered their vehicles were given ‘freedom of the road’ to travel at speeds up to 20mph.

Of course times have changed considerably since then – at that point there were less than 8,000 cars on UK roads and now there are around 26 million licensed cars in the UK. So is it time for a shake-up? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.


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