Under-25s face driving curfew to reduce road deaths

Graduated licensing plans could ban new motorists from having passengers or taking vehicle out at night

YOUNG drivers could be banned from giving lifts to friends and from being on roads at night.

MPS are to consider calls for a “graduated

driver’s licence” imposing a probationary period of up to two years on under-25s after they pass their test.

New motorists would be forced to abide by curfews, only accept experienced drivers as passengers and potentially face restrictions on speed.

The plans will be put forward next month when the Commons transport committee begins its inquiry into young and novice drivers.

MPS will hear from Dr Neale Kinnear, the head of behavioural science at transport group TRL, who calculates graduated licensing could prevent around 400 deaths or serious injuries a year, saving the economy £200million.

He said: “Research shows that young drivers are less adept at responding to road hazards. The only real approach to tackle this with evidence of working is graduated driver licensing, and the evidence for it is overwhelming.”

Government statistics suggest as many as a quarter of newly qualified motorists are involved in an accident during their first two years on the road. The committee will also hear from road safety campaigner George Atkinson, whose daughter Livia, 16, a talented ballet dancer, was killed in 1988 when she was hit by a car that mounted a pavement.

He also believes a graduated licensing system would be “an obvious and much needed” way to save lives.

Mr Atkinson is calling for young drivers to be limited to 50mph, be restricted to driving vehicles with an engine no bigger than 1.1l and be banned from driving after 11pm for two years. He said: “I understand that people want to drive and they don’t want to have their freedoms restricted.

“But by that argument what you’re saying is that it’s all right for someone to kill my daughter. Trust me, you would change your mind if this sort of thing happened to you.”

While drivers under 25 are seven per cent of the motoring population, they are involved in 20 per cent of all fatal and serious collisions.

Many countries have adopted graduated licensing. In 2018, Theresa May, then prime minister, asked the Department

for Transport to investigate the possibility of such a scheme. A pilot scheme was tested in Northern Ireland from 2019 to 2020 with a view to set it up nationwide if successful.

However, ministers are understood to be considering Us-style “guardian agreements”. This means new drivers under 25 could be asked to sign contracts with their parents on the conditions they must meet. Restrictions could include no driving between midnight and 6am and a ban on having more than one young passenger.