Minimum Driving Age

[DMMS]

Not sure what I think about this.  It has to be said that, out of all the guys in my year at school, I was the only one who hadn't pranged his car within 6 months of passing their test.  Not overly convinced that an extra year will make a great deal of difference apart of simply delaying the inevitable.

[peterg]

Yeah, usual reaction by politishuns and others, don't improve the training, just reduce the number of 17 year olds driving    

cue in 5 years time "most accidents/fatalities by drivers in 18-24 age group so we'll raise the minimum age to 19...."  

cue in 5 years time "most accidents/fatalities by drivers in 19-24 age group so we'll raise the minimum age to 20...."  

etc etc

[peterg]

Oh, and another thought (gosh that's two in one day   ) it will probably increase the number of joy riders as youngsters won't want to wait  to try out driving and that problem is bad enough already  

[neilb]

I believe it would be similar to what they have in France

[Pembroke Pat]

Actually I think it has some sense.  

It brings us in to line with the rest of europe.

It makes sense that a motorcyclist should not be allowed out on some superbike until a certain level of experience is proved.

A curfew of new drivers and a ban on the number of passengers seems reasonable.

I can still remember being newly qualified and dangerous behind the wheel

[mr-rad]

How are they going to police the young passenger part of this especially with so few patrolling police cars on the roads?

[DavidR]

My 5p worth . . . .  it's absolute rubbish .  . it's bad enough that teenagers can't find jobs . . .but the ones that do find jobs won't be able to get to work cos public transport is being cut and it takes over an hour to do a 7 mile journey on the first bus of the day from our village just to arrive 10 minutes late for work.

Training, experience and enginesize/power limits by all means but to up the age just defers the problem and encourages illegal activity.

/rant mode off.

David

[david.c]

Not sure this will solve the problem, just put it back a year.

Perhaps some of the problem is 'Playstation generation' where you can corner flat, stop on a sixpence and generally drive like you stole it.............without any consequences.

Heard a statistic the other day that scared the s**t out of me       'MORE TEENAGE GIRLS ARE KILLED BY THEIR BOYFRIENDS CRASHING THAN ANY OTHER CAUSE!'          

And I have a teenage daughter

David

[darthurs]

I agree that better training is needed. The motorways in this country are awful to drive on because of lack of knowledge of how to use them correctly. I also think new drivers should be taught how a car reacts at the limit and beyond (in a safe environment). They will then realize how much skill is needed to 4 wheel drifting a car round a bend, just like their favorite rally driver can, before they go out and try it for themselves on the road and find out the hard way.

Dan

[Blatman]

It makes sense that a motorcyclist should not be allowed out on some superbike until a certain level of experience is proved.

Clearly someone doesn't know that the the current bike test is *much* harder to pass than the car test, *and* if you want to ride a powerful motorbike, you have to train and pass the test on a bigger bike than if you just want sub 500cc machine.

As for the qestion of raising the age limit for driving, why not? It'll make no real difference to anyone once it hits the statute books, save for those who will be turning 17 the day the rule changes, and it'll make no real difference to the acident statistics either. Joy riders will still joy ride, and there'll still be no cops to catch them. The only way to prevent road deaths is to make the test harder to pass, and introduce laws that properly govern the way pedestrians behave, IE, lets have some some jay walking laws so that crossing when the gereen man is actually flashing an offence, although there'll still be no cops to catch them either...

[slippy]

Why not harsher punishments for first year offences so the genuine people who behave themselves are not penalised for the stupidity of the minority

Just my 2p worth

[pistonbroke]

QUOTE

crossing when the gereen man is

or Green Man even  

Its nuts  

same old song , legislate, legislate, legislate      

[Tubs]

Typical of the current woolly thinking of your government. They think that they can legislate to resolve a problem.

They need to learn how to engage the the target sector of the public and then provide solutions that have their support.

Ain't gonna happen.

Tubs

[MK11]

I fully support the better training and more stringent test plus the vehicle restrictions until experience is proved, any crashes/convictions would delay the lifting of the restriction.  How the vehicle restrictions would be policed could be a problem.

Also what about automatic retest required after 3 months additional training if convicted of a serious motoring offence in the first year, and a £2,000 fine plus vehicle confiscation if convicted of driving without licence or insurance.

The area I am in two minds about though is the driver training for at and beyond the limit, whilst I can see the benefits I can also see the Boy Racers then drifting round next hairpin bend because they have been "trained" how to.

I would like to see the driver training involve the learner watching videos of the results of a crash in graphic technicolour closeup, maybe that would give them pause, scare them sensible?  Seminars with crash victims laying it on the line, not the general "Speed Kills" rubbish trotted out by the politically correct, but proper innapropriate speed for the conditions indoctrination.

[Phil. S]

Yeah, usual reaction by politishuns and others, don't improve the training, just reduce the number of 17 year olds driving    

cue in 5 years time "most accidents/fatalities by drivers in 18-24 age group so we'll raise the minimum age to 19...."  

cue in 5 years time "most accidents/fatalities by drivers in 19-24 age group so we'll raise the minimum age to 20...."  

etc etc

My thoughts exactly. This reminded me of the joke about British Rail trying to cut accident rates by removing the last carriage from their trains after learning that most accidents affect the last carriage.

It's the fact that these drivers are inexperienced not the fact that they are 17 that is the reason they have more accidents. It may be that new drivers aged 30 or 40 have fewer accidents than younger new drivers, but the move from 17-18 will have no effect whatsoever. Are they supposed to suddenly become more mature and reflective at 18?