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Columnist Alexander Britton on road safety

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WHEN I first got my hands on the wheel of a car, I was a fair distance from the stereotype of the spotty teenager eager to unleash the power of thousands of horses on the mean streets of Wilford.

For one, I wasn't that spotty.

But, more importantly, I spent 30 minutes with a clammy grip on the wheel, travelling at a harrowing 5mph along Wilford Industrial Estate.

I think if I'd hit a child who had run on to the road, the only injuries that would have needed tending to would have been a serious case of split sides.

I'm pretty sure my first driving experience is repeated across the country as thousands of teenagers take their tentative first steps behind the wheel.

So, how do they go from timid and tense to reckless and renegade as soon as they have a shiny pink driving licence? No idea.

Road safety is, obviously, a pretty important issue and the statistics that an 18-year-old driver is three times more likely than someone 30 years their senior to meet their end on the roads shows that something ought to be done.

I often find it strange that learner drivers are banned from driving on the motorways until they have ditched the L-plates.

I'd rather have had my first experience of careering down the M1 with an instructor at my side than an anxious family member who was clutching the door handle and hastily drafting a will.

But if the rules on motorway driving seem a bit perplexing, the fact that youngsters get carte blanche on the roads, as soon as they leave the driving test centre, to drive day or night is a bit frightening.

You would have thought insurers would rub their hands with glee when a teenager with a new motor needs covering, but it's actually the industry that's proposing a pretty workable solution.

The system would work by placing restrictions on new drivers for the first 12 months after they had passed their test – a sort of car-based probationary period.

During this time, new drivers would not be able to use the roads between 11pm and 4am and the blood alcohol limit would be lower than it is for more experienced drivers.

The Association of British Insurers says cars are "potentially lethal weapons" and improving the safety of young drivers will also lead to lower insurance costs.

Critics of the policy may argue that the testing should be more rigorous and that as soon as you are certified as being good enough to drive, you should be good enough day or night.

But you shouldn't try to run before you can walk, so why try to drive hours cross country in the middle of the night when you've only tackled the A453 during rush hour?

Any death on the roads is a tragedy and you only need to leaf through the papers over the course of a week to see the human cost of bad driving.

Rather than shake our heads and mutter condolences under our breath, it's good to see measures being suggested that could tackle the problem.

If we are going to be serious about road safety, it's time to do, rather than say.


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