RAC highlights teenage driver death toll

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/14/rac-highlights-teenage-driver-death-toll

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More than four teenage passengers die or are injured a week in car accidents, according to figures from the RAC Foundation.

In 2013 – the latest year for which figures are available – 234 teenage car passengers were killed or seriously injured in Britain when the young driver (17-19) they were travelling with was involved in a crash. It is the first time that the foundation has calculated accident figures for teenage car passengers.

If slight injuries were included the figure rose to 2,144, or around 41 each week. The foundation’s previous research showed that while 17 to 19-year-old drivers made up only 1.5% of licence holders, they were involved in 12% of deaths or serious injury accidents.

One in five newly qualified young drivers will have an accident within six months of passing their test, figures show. In an accident in February, the driver of a runaway tipper truck involved in a collision that killed four people, including a four-year-old girl, was a teenager who had celebrated qualifying to drive an articulated lorry just five days earlier. The 19-year-old was was driving a 32-tonne truck that careered out of control on a very steep and narrow hill on the outskirts of Bath.

In highlighting the high death toll, the motoring research charity urged the government to tackle what it said was a neglected problem.

“It is a great disappointment that successive governments have failed to tackle an issue that is causing so much physical and emotional pain,” said Professor Stephen Glaister, RAC Foundation director. “If this was any other area of social and health policy there would be debates in parliament and marches on Downing Street, but for some reason society seems to tolerate the carnage on our roads particularly that involving young people.”

Glaister urged the new government to issue a green paper on young driver safety, something he said the previous coalition government failed to do despite repeated promises.

The annual figures suggest the number of teenagers hurt in accidents where a teenager is driving has declined over recent years and at a faster rate than the general fall in road casualties. However, the foundation put this down to a fall in car licences held by young people, a drop in trip rates among young people and safer cars rather than younger drivers becoming inherently safer.

Brake, a car safety charity, says young drivers are more likely to take many of the most serious risks, including speeding, overtaking blind, driving on drugs, and not wearing seat belts.

The RAC Foundation has called for the introduction of graduated licensing, which includes a minimum learning period followed by a post-test novice driver period with licence restrictions, such as driving at night and carrying passengers.

“Graduated licensing has been common in many countries for some time and would help keep newly qualified young drivers, and their passengers, safe during the critical first 1,000 miles after people have passed their test,” said Glaister. “It is a tragedy it has not been introduced or even debated as a policy option.”