Stats aren't so smashing

The RAC Foundation say that young drivers are “more likely to crash”.

In other news, the Pope is, apparently, “likely to be Catholic”.

Apart from stating the bleeping obvious, the RAC Foundation do have a very serious point. 12% of people hurt or killed in a shunt are involved in an accident with 17-19 year olds.

That’s shocking. Even more so when you take into account that drivers in that age range make up just 1.5% of those with a driving licence.

To make an already appalling statistic even more alarming, that 12% figure jumps up to a whopping 15.8% on roads here in Cumbria. Plans to introduce a probationary licence system were recently put on hold by the government. These would have included a ‘curfew’ period unless the car contained someone over 30, lower legal alcohol limits, and drivers doing some of their learning stages in Motorway conditions.

I was pretty terrified the first time I drove in traffic (a milk float, someone on a bicycle and the nice old lady from 2 doors up in her Allegro), so I can’t imagine the look of abject terror on a teenager’s face if they were flung into motorway conditions early on.

But surely there is some sense to these proposed restrictions? It truly is a liberating experience to be driving unaccompanied for the first time, but should we be willing to restrict that freedom a little, in the name of increased safety?

This seems to be the issue at the heart of the Department for Transport’s decision; They don’t want to restrict the lives of young people.

As we’ve recently established, I was young at some distant, sepia-toned, point in the past, and purchased my first car (an orange Mini with fur-lined doors, because I’m worth it) for the princely sum of £300. I hadn’t driven for six months, as I’d been saving up since passing my test.

I wasn’t allowed to drive my Dad’s car, thanks largely to my elder brother and an incident involving Glam Rock platform boots and a brake pedal interface error. I’m not clear if Dad was grey-haired at that point in the ‘70s, but he certainly was afterwards.

But there I was, driving across an unfamiliar part of town, hair full of styling mousse, using a vague memory of what I was supposed to be doing as guidance.

As the months passed, my confidence grew and I became invincible, able to fling my tiny car down even tinier country lanes, safe in the knowledge that I was a better driver than all the older people on the road, and had faster reactions, even after a pint or two.

It turns out that in my teenage years I was a dangerous idiot, put others at immense risk, and had an ego the size of my bouffant-ed hairstyle. Apart from that, I was a terrible driver too.

Restrict the ability of a small minority of car drivers, to increase the safety of everyone else? Where do I sign?

This post first appeared as my "Thank grumpy it's Friday" column, in the North West Evening Mail, on the 30th of May 2014. You can view the version used by the paper here which, shockingly, is actually several words longer than the one I submitted.

On closer inspection, they replaced '%' with 'per cent'. They also changed the title to "Crash stats are not so smashing". Quite a day for longeriness occurring...

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