You may have heard on the news recently about a court case in Wales, where the judge presiding made a statement saying that young men should “be kept from behind the wheel until the age of 24”. The Judge in question was faced with a young 18 year old man who had caused an accident after showing off to his friends in his newly acquired Peugeot. He raced a Toyota driven by another young man (age 24), along a stretch of dual carriageway near Bridgend. The 18 year old admitted to showing off to impress his friends.

Of course it ended with the Toyota crashing though the central barrier and seriously injuring the driver, after the Peugeot clipped it at speeds of around 95mph.

We have all heard of incidents in our own neighbourhood of young male drivers putting their lives, those of their passengers and other innocent road users at risk on public roads.

RoSPA’s website states that young men are more likely to be involved in road accidents than more experienced drivers. They are more likely to be involved in high-speed accidents, accidents in the dark, accidents when overtaking and when negotiating bends. They are also more likely than experienced drivers to be at fault for accidents. Scary stuff especially if you are the parent of a young man learning to drive.

The RoSPA website at www.rospa.com/roadsafety/advice/youngdrivers was one of several I found after “googling” “young male driver”. It offers advice for young drivers as well as telling the story of the horrific stats on the deaths and injuries they are more at risk from. Interestingly enough, RoSPA say that the accident risk decreases for young male drivers once they have got two to three years experience under their belts. But experience and age aren’t the only factors, yes you’ve guessed it...attitude has a lot to do with the increased accident risk faced by younger male drivers.

RoSPA put forward some interesting points about how to help young novice drivers reduce their risk of accidents and injury, and mentions schemes for pre-driver education and training; an idea for raising the age at which young people can take their test to 18; and other alternative approaches such as a minimum learning period, where it has been estimated that a minimum 12 month learning period could cut road deaths by 800 a year and injuries by a staggering 6,000 casualties a year.

If you are the parent of a young driver, here is another link to try for information www.fmg.org.uk. Alternatively, bring them along to our evening Autotests. Here you can learn a heck of a lot about car control in relative safety. And it’s FUN!