The June 2015 report from the Department for Transport highlights that young car drivers aged between 17 and 24 are an important set of road users because they are statistically over-represented in reported road accidents in comparison with older car drivers aged 25 and above. The high levels of risk associated with young drivers are likely to be as a result of inexperience, and the age of the young car driver.
BE SMART, KEEP YOU AND YOUR PASSENGERS ALIVE
Here are some key facts and figures which you should consider before driving.
- The majority (85 per cent) of casualties killed or seriously injured in drink drive accidents involving young car drivers are the young drink drivers and their passengers.
- Young car drivers are more likely to have at least one contributory factor allocated to them than older drivers. The most common contributory factor allocated to young car drivers was failed to look properly
- Accidents that occur on rural roads are more likely to be of a fatal nature in comparison with those on urban roads. This is because of the difference in the average speed on different roads. Rural roads have a much higher average speed than urban roads. Rural roads are often also much more sinuous and narrow in nature, with blind bends, dips and other distractions.
National statistics-Young car drivers-2013 data
VIDEOS
In 2015, across the South Central region 111 people were killed in road traffic collisions and 1,915 people seriously injured. All these incidents were ones that our staff attended – coming both by road and air.
Our staff feel strongly that the vast majority of road traffic collisions they go to could be avoided if people signed up to all the pledges of Road Safety Week, and doing so would mean that they would have to deal with far less fatalities and seriously injured patients.
Watch their videos in our Videos section