John Leech MP leads calls for safer young drivers

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 30th Jul 2007

John Leech MP Makes Proposals to Improve Road Safety

Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson, John Leech MP, has led calls for the government to prevent thousands of road accidents every year by introducing tougher tests for young drivers.

John is part of the influential Transport Select Committee who recently published their report on measures to improve road safety. The report focused on the dangers posed by young drivers on Britain's roads.

Young, male drivers are now the biggest killers of young women in the UK while nearly half of all night-time road crash deaths happen to people under the age of 25.

The Committee has proposed that all young drivers spend at least a year learning to drive in order to gain experience of the roads.

"It is shocking that people just don't take road safety seriously," said John Leech MP, who has also introduced a parliamentary motion calling on the government to change the law. "It's essential that we get the message out to drivers, and young drivers especially, that cars can be deadly. It's especially important in Manchester, which is the area with the second highest road accident death rate in the North West."

"There are so many tragic stories of young people being seriously injured or killed in car accidents," John continued. "Unfortunately, people don't realise the risks until it's too late.

The Committee also proposed a zero tolerance approach to drink-driving for a year after a young driver passed his or her test.

End

Notes to editors:

The Seventh Report of Session 2006-07 of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee on Novice Drivers, House of Commons Paper 954 was published on 19th July 2007.

The full text of the report, including references for all figures quoted, can be found at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmtran/355/35502.htm

John Leech tabled Early Day Motion 1995 - Novice Drivers. The text of the motion is set out below.

NOVICE DRIVERS

24.07.2007

Leech, John

That this House welcomes the Seventh Report of Session 2006-07 of the House of Commons Transport Committee on Novice Drivers, House of Commons Paper 954; supports the Report's recommendations for a more structured approach to learning to drive; deplores the statistics which show there were 477 young drivers killed on Britain's roads in 2005; recognises the importance of a lifelong learning approach to driving safely and the need to start safe driving education in schools to equip young people with the skills and attitudes to drive for life; believes that there is a need to reform the driver training and testing system to enable novice drivers to have supervised lessons on motorways and instruction on night driving; and calls on the Government to prioritise the Driving Standards Agency review of driver training to enable novice drivers to gain broad experience before taking their driving test to equip them for the challenges on the roads of today and the future.

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33861&SESSION=885