I saw this story in the week (link now dead). The AA is calling for driver education to be part of the National Curriculum. It seems that this is yet another “solution” to the problem of younger drivers having more accidents than older ones.
I mentioned this recently, but I’ll say it again…
Most new drivers are young. By definition, a NEW driver does not have the same experience as an OLDER driver. Less experienced drivers are likely to have more accidents more experienced ones.
Can you see the logical result of that? It means that young drivers have more accidents, BECAUSE they tend to be the new drivers. It isn’t rocket science.
Some thing else that isn’t rocket science is the fact that experience – again, by definition – comes with time. And Steven Hawking would be able to tell you that it isn’t possible to get 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 years of driving experience into 6 months without some really heavy theoretical events coming into play (i.e. several Black Holes and some gaffer tape).
So, it seems that the AA’s solution to the problem is to start ’em young. However, unless we’re talking about sending 5-year olds out on the roads (and that is obviously ridiculous), anything included in the National Curriculum is not going to contribute significantly to changing the fact that…
Young people are much more likely to suffer a catastrophic crash than older and more experienced drivers.
New drivers have always had more accidents than older ones. You will never stop it completely.
But there is one thing that MUST be stopped, and that is this continued bleeding heart approach which suggests that the fault is with driver education. It isn’t. No instructor teaches people to behave like chavs and drive like idiots, and yet THAT is the cause of most accidents.
The problem starts way back at the moment of conception – and goes downhill from there.
And as if this were necessary, let’s just remember that that National Curriculum contains a lot of things already – like maths, English, and science – but it is not exactly renowned for its production of numerate and literate scientists!