Another “new” story reckons that:
…young motorists should be banned from driving at night, carrying a certain number of passengers and after drinking any amount of alcohol to reduce the number of fatal road crashes, a new report has recommended.
It isn’t new at all. It goes back to last year at the very least, and the same issues have been discussed almost continuously for as long as I can remember.
Everyone knows – and has known for many years – that most accidents involving new drivers tick all or most of the following boxes:
- driver aged 17-24
- occur at night
- on rural roads
- on bends
- with passengers in the car
- with no other vehicle being involved
- excessive speed is identified
Everyone also knows that although young drivers only make up about 12% of the driving population, they account for 33% of all road fatalities.
It all comes down to two main factors: inexperience and stupidity (aka attitude).
Every new driver who has ever lived has been inexperienced when they passed their test. There is absolutely nothing that can be done about that, and even if they had to take more lessons or extra post-test training they would still be inexperienced. You see, inexperience is a function of time, and time cannot be made to run any faster in spite of what politicians and newspaper editors might think. And we’re not talking about a few hours of extra “experience” – it requires years of on-road practice to become a completely safe driver. But you can be a responsible driver from the first moment you go out.
So, anyone with any sense would decide to attack the stupidity/attitude issue. After all, none of those drivers was ever taught to drive the way they do now back when they were taking lessons, so why try to blame those lessons for the way they choose to behave now?
Having said all that, I am all for anything which puts the brakes on stupid behaviour. If you want to be treated as an adult, act like one first.