The parents'
campaign for safe driving tuition
Mixed Response to Transport Select Committee Report
on Young & Newly Qualified Drivers: Standards & Training
Learn and Live is pleased
that the Transport Select Committee has examined the largely neglected question
of driver training. We welcome certain of their recommendations but are very
disappointed that yet again they have failed to “grasp the
nettle” and are still proposing to rely heavily on others i.e.
advertisers, film-makers and the insurance industry to solve the unacceptable
level of death & injury among young drivers and their passengers.
We are totally in
support of the following:
- Compulsory hazard perception testing
- Road safety to be made part of the core curriculum (while
foreseeing great reluctance to implement such measures).
- Increasing the penalties for driving without a licence
- Carrying a licence while driving
- We support proposals that the Government immediately introduce a
minimum period between obtaining a provisional licence and taking a driving
test, which should be of at least one year’s duration. Learn & Live
has long been anxious to remove the current atmosphere of competition among
young drivers and sadly, often, their respective parents.
- However, we would caution that this gives no
guarantee that extra practice will actually take place unless the current
voluntary logbook scheme, becomes compulsory.
- Learn & Live is very disappointed by the
rejection of an effective probationary driver scheme and compulsory post-test
measures such as motorway instruction and other elements of Pass Plus.
