The Daily Telegraph

Make rural driving lessons compulsory, urges road safety charity

- By Sophie Jamieson

LEARNER drivers should have compulsory lessons on rural roads to bring down the number of fatal accidents.

Brake, the road safety charity, says learners should be forced to practise on country highways – where four in five fatal crashes involving young drivers take place – as part of a graduated licensing system which would make new drivers slowly build up new skills in stages.

The charity believes the UK should follow other countries in having a minimum learning period of one year before a driver can sit a test. For two years after passing, drivers should not be able to carry passengers under the age of 25 or be on the roads between 11pm and 6am, Brake adds.

According to Department for Transport figures, 120 young drivers died in crashes in 2015, the last year for which full data is available. Eighty per cent of those crashes took place on rural roads, 16 per cent on urban roads and four per cent on motorways.

Jason Wakeford, Director of Campaigns for Brake, said: “High speeds, sharp bends, narrow lanes, risky overtaking and the presence of vulnerable road users like cyclists, make rural roads the most dangerous by far. Brake is calling for a total overhaul of the learning to drive system. This approach has dramatical­ly reduced road casualties in countries including Australia and New Zealand and could save 400 lives a year if implemente­d in the UK.”

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