Targeting reckless young drivers

Road safety measures backfire

More than 40,000 young drivers who have been disqualified under the New Drivers Act could be continuing to drive while unlicensed and uninsured, according to the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS).

The Act stipulates that drivers who receive six penalty points within two years of passing their tests must have their licence revoked, and will have to start the qualification process from the beginning.

This is tougher than the standard limit, under which drivers who accumulate 12 points within three years serve a six-month ban but do not have to resit their driving test. The Act means that a novice driver can be returned to being a learner after only one serious speeding offence or two offences in which he or she drives only a few miles per hour over the speed limit.

The law was introduced to try to reduce the number of serious crashes caused by inexperienced drivers, especially those under the age of 20.

PACTS found that fewer than half of the novice drivers who lost their licences under the Act requalified and returned to the roads as legal drivers. Of the 62,000 young drivers disqualified between January 1998 and March 2003, only 29,000 regained their licence, leaving 33,000 who disappeared from the system.

PACTS, said that some would have decided to give up driving, but at least two thirds were likely to be driving illegally and that there is strong evidence that many thousands of novice drivers disqualified through the New Drivers Act are continuing to drive unlicensed.

The driving test has been altered twice in the past decade to make it more rigorous. A theory test was introduced in 1996 and a hazard perception test in 2003.

Sad facts

One in five new drivers is involved in a crash in his or her first year of driving.
13 per cent of licence holders are 25 or under, but more than 29 per cent of drivers killed are in this age group.

Male drivers aged 17 to 19 are almost ten times more likely to be killed or badly injured behind the wheel than those aged 40 to 59.
In 2004, 187 male drivers aged 17 were killed compared with 36 females.

Sources: Driving Standards Agency; DfT; Brake

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