Police chiefs have vowed to work closely with young drivers to try to reduce the number of road deaths.
Official figures recently showed a 10% increase in fatalities across the country last year compared with 2005.

Ch Supt Mike McCormick – casualty reduction spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland – said the statistics were of concern.

He said young drivers would be targeted as a group “more likely” to be involved in such crashes.

The Dumfries and Galloway police officer said there had been a rise in deaths on his region’s roads – mirroring the national trend.
2006 ROAD DEATHS BY POLICE FORCE AREA
Strathclyde – 96
Grampian – 62
Lothian and Borders – 42
Northern – 30
Dumfries and Galloway – 25
Tayside – 21
Fife – 19
Central – 19
He described the increase as “absolutely dreadful”.

“We really want to do something about that,” he said.

“We do see some focus both nationally and, to some extent, locally, about young drivers being a group of people more likely to feature in these crashes rather than other age bands.

“So we really want to work with that group.”

A total of 314 people died in 2006, 28 more than the previous year.

An expert panel is now to be brought in to advise the government on safety.

Despite the rise in deaths last year, there has been a longer-term overall downward trend in road accident fatalities.

The figures also revealed there had been a drop in the number of people seriously injured and “slightly injured”.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/6748223.stm

Published: 2007/06/13 11:51:39 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Any comments from members of the Bedford and District Driving Instructors Association (BADDIA)?

Few things strike more fear into the heart of the average road-user than a teenager behind the wheel. And it’s no picnic for parents, either – handing over the car keys can be a stressful and worrying affair.

The first year of solo driving is when the crash risk is highest, says Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). But there is some good news for those whose youngsters are still on their L plates: this is one of the safest driving periods. The more on-road experience and good habits they pick up now, the better equipped they’ll be to drive responsibly after their test, says Mr Clinton.

“It’s experience that reduces the risk in the end, not age. Maximising experience during the safe learning period reduces the risk once the youngster can drive on their own,” he says.

Traditionally, this is done through professional lessons and private practice with parents or family friends. Research suggests learner drivers should clock up about 50 lessons with an instructor, which can get pricey, so make sure your child is getting the most out of every session.

The first step is finding the right instructor, says Maria McCarthy, author of The Girls’ Guide To Losing Your L Plates. She says: “Check that the person is qualified, as opposed to just a trainee.” You could quiz them over the phone, or ride along on your child’s first lessons, she adds.

Gearing up for private practice sessions could even include a refresher lesson for yourself, Mr Clinton explains, as well as a bit of swotting up on the Highway Code. “It’s a reminder of how you should be driving, which may be different from the way you are driving,” he says.

Your child’s instructor can also advise you on when to start private practice, and what to cover, Ms McCarthy explains. “The main thing to bear in mind is never to take the teenager beyond what they’ve done with the driving instructor - always work below.”

The main thing is for both parent and teenager to agree to stay calm during practice drives, Mr Clinton says. Shouting and sarcasm won’t help. “The young driver may make mistakes or make decisions that might seem strange to an experienced driver,” he says.

“It’s useful not to get too picky during the drive, but talk about what happened later. Parents need to make sure they’re not distracting the learner, because learners don’t have autopilot like experienced drivers. They will need to spend a lot more of their conscious mental effort on looking for things and making decisions.”

And a pep talk never goes astray: “A good training method is to offer praise and then a little bit of constructive criticism and then praise again,” Mr Clinton says.

But no matter how supportive and involved parents are, some children will still struggle with learning to drive, Ms McCarthy says. In some cases, throwing in the towel – even for a little while – could make sense. “Let them know they’ve got the option of giving up,” she says. “They haven’t got to learn to drive now if they don’t feel like it.

“In those teenage years, you’re doing exams, you might be involved in sport, you might have your first serious relationship. There’s a lot of general pressure. And driving can be just another pressure.”

Source: Borehamwood and Elstree Times website 13/06/07

Any thoughts from Bedford and District Driving Instructors Association (BADDIA) members?

We all know that airbags can help to reduce injuries in a collision. But one Bedford and District Driving Instructors Association (BADDIA) member has pointed out an article claiming the injuries that airbags themselves can inflict on our limbs should they get in the way when an airbag is deployed! Having seen a demonstration of an airbag inflating I can quite believe it. There is a very loud detonation and the bag is inflated in a fraction of a second.

World Wide Air Bag Safety Until 2012
Seven Steps everyone needs to take: Today, all cars are manufactured with at least two airbags - one for the driver and one for the front seat passenger. All people, drivers and passengers, need to change their driving habits and use the following six points to ride safely in front of air bags.
The U.S. government has given auto makers until 2012 to develop and install “safe” (or “Advanced”) airbags. Once those new “Safe” airbags are developed, field tested and proven safe, these safety measures may not be necessary. But in the meantime, they can help you minimize airbag injuries or fatalities. Recent research has shown that all drivers and passengers risk severe injury to their hands, arms, heads and shoulders from airbags unless these safety measures are followed. These apply to all drivers and passengers (unless you have turned off your airbags).
1. Grip your steering wheel at the sides or bottom, not higher than the 10 and 2 o’clock positions, when you drive.
Never drive with your hands at the top of your steering wheel or with your hands, thumbs, fingers or arms resting on the center of your steering wheel.
2. Develop the habit of turning the steering wheel without crossing your arm in front of the airbag cover.
3. Do not blow your horn at the onset of an accident.
4. Passengers should never place hands, fingers, thumbs or arms on the dashboard near the plastic air bag module cover. In case of an accident, never brace yourself with your hands and arms on the dashboard.
(Dr Wm Smock, a leading airbag injury research physician, indicates that these habits may protect your arms, wrists, hands, and fingers from being broken, pulverized or amputated by your airbag)

5. Push the seat, either driver or passenger, back as far as possible. The driver needs to keep at least 10 inches back from the airbag and horn cover (12 inches per Dr. Smock). Pedal extenders can help a driver reach the pedals if driving with an extended toe is uncomfortable, but in many cases, seeing the road is impossible when a shorter driver’s seat is moved back. The passenger seat may also be tilted back slightly for added protection. Tilting the seat back too far can be dangerous because the body can slide underneath the restraints in an accident.

6. Children and frail passengers should always be in the back seat, properly restrained by a seatbelt or car seat. If not possible, a passenger side air bag on/off switch may be installed to shut off the front seat passenger side air bag.

7. Never place a rear facing infant car seat in the front seat with the infant’s head toward an active dashboard air bag.
An airbag switch can eliminate the airbag hazard, but in all cases, seatbelts are the best protection and developing a habit of buckling them will help insure they are there when needed. Seat belt pre-tensioners also help reduce the risk of airbag injury since they will prevent you or your passengers from accelerating forward at high speed in the early part of a front end accident. Otherwise your own body’s forward speed and momentum will put you too close to the airbag as it detonates (at 200 mph and with about 2000 lbs of force). According to research by GM, this force reaches about six times what the human body can survive if you are close to the airbag when it detonates.

Source: Dr William Smock; Williams and Wilkins

Any comments from BADDIA members?

Psychometric tests could identify drivers with a bad attitude.
Psychological assessments should become part of the UK driving test, a road safety expert has urged.
Robert Gifford, director of a road safety charity, told BBC Radio Five Live the current system failed to root out drivers prone to breaking rules.

He said psychometric tests could help to identify people with the wrong attitude to the road.

The call comes as the Driving Standards Agency carries out a review of how people learn to drive.

The government said it would keep an open mind over what changes might be brought in.

‘Risk-takers’

Mr Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), said the current test assessed people’s technical ability – their hand, eye and foot co-ordination.

But he said it failed to look at their psychological attitude to the road.

For example, it fails to assess if they see themselves as risk-takers, making them more likely to break the speed limit or jump a red light.

He said a psychometric assessment would help identify such faults and instructors and examiners would then be able to modify the person’s behaviour.

“What one would want to do is – in addition to the multiple choice questions that there are in the theory test at the moment – we would give people a series of value judgements,” he said.

What you are doing is trying to highlight the extent to which people believe certain things, how they feel about certain things and how they will generally behave towards, obviously in this case, traffic

Dr Lisa Dorn,
Cranfield University

“These could include, ‘At what speed would you anticipate driving down this road?’ or ‘Have you ever left the traffic lights while they have been on red?’.

“We would ask people the extent to which they agree or disagree with these statements.

“It would be a way of picking up their underlying values rather than just the facts that they have at their disposal, which are a series of multiple choice questions.”

Dr Lisa Dorn from Cranfield University has drawn up psychometric tests for drivers.

The tests are currently being used by Arriva buses to assess new drivers, who face a one in two chance of being involved in a collision in their first year.

Hidden checks

In the last four years, while the tests have been in use, the company has reduced fatalities involving its buses by 31%, Dr Dorn said.

“The principle is that when you administer a psychometric assessment what you are doing is trying to highlight the extent to which people believe certain things, how they feel about certain things and how they will generally behave towards, obviously in this case, traffic,” she said.

HAVE YOUR SAY
Given the sheer volume of traffic on our roads today, the current driving test is nowhere near tough enough

Netuser, Plymouth
Send us your comments

Gary Austin, former chief executive of the Driving Standards Agency, runs a driving school which uses psychometric tests to assess students.

He said they were useful in deciding how someone should be taught.

“For instance we may reveal that someone is actually quite an aggressive driver, or aggressive personality, or they find it very difficult to cope when someone perhaps cuts them up,” he said.

But the idea of introducing psychometric testing was criticised by other motoring groups.

‘Complex matter’

Edmund King, the RAC Foundation’s executive director, said: “We accept we have to do more about young drivers who are most at risk on the roads.

“We are not opposed to new ideas but the concept of psychometric testing is not the solution and a bit of a gimmick, we would like to see prior training in education.”

Paul Smith, founder of organisation Safe Speed, said road safety was a “complex matter of individual risk management”.

He added: “We could write a million rules, obey them perfectly, and still fail to observe someone stepping into the road ahead.”

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “The Driving Standards Agency is conducting a review of driver testing and training and when ministers have had a chance to look at that the proposals will be put out to consultation.”

Source: BBC News website 09/06/07

A new science-led driving course believes it has found a solution to the growing problem of road deaths among young drivers – but it costs £2500 per pupil.

Government research into novice drivers suggests that a young person aged between 17 and 24 is killed or seriously injured in a road traffic accident every hour of the day and that the death rate among young drivers has doubled in the past five years.

A2om, an acronym that stands for Alpha to Omega Motoring and is pronounced ‘atom’, has teamed up with Cranfield University in the United Kingdom and Waikato University in New Zealand to produce a course that offers practical and theory lessons to address what it believes are the root problems of accidents among young drivers.

They say the worst problems are behavioural, rather than from any physical difficulty in driving a car, and that this is down to the development rate of the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that can anticipate risk and which normally matures around the age of 24.

By training young people in the potential risks before they happen, a2om’s instructors hope they can prepare them to react in a more mature way. Lessons include courses on drink, drugs, peer pressure, first aid and how to maintain a car.

‘We try to cover every eventuality and coach and educate the drivers in ways to react. There’s no point just telling them what to do – they need to be made aware of the consequences of their actions,’ said Gary Austin, former boss of the Driving Standards Agency, who heads A2om’s training scheme.

Pupils spend around 60 hours behind the wheel of one of the school’s Audi-provided A3s, receive five classroom lessons and tackle internet-based exercises. Because of these teaching methods and the course’s cost, it is currently being phased in through public schools.

The course has already met with approval of insurer Royal & Sun Alliance, which is offering discounts to pupils that have taken the course – Austin estimates the average annual saving will be between £1000 and £2000 for a typical fully comprehensive policy for a 17-year-old.

The a2om group is also developing courses for older drivers, company car drivers and Premiership football clubs which will be available later this year.

Source: What Car website 09/06/07

What do BADDIA members think?

Every day, two young drivers under the age of 25 die in road traffic accidents.

Many die as a consequence of inexperience, speeding, intoxication through drink or drugs or just plain recklessness.

Being a good driver is not just about the ability to control a car and having good reflexes but about attitude and being able to spot and understand dangers on the road.

Below is a summary of findings about young drivers taken from the Green Flag Report on Safe Driving (2001).

‘YOUNG DRIVERS ON SAFETY

The findings of the survey showed that young drivers take more life-threatening risks than other drivers. This is extremely worrying as these drivers have only just received safety training through their theoretical and practical driving tests. This is reflected by the death toll of young drivers. One in ten drivers is under the age of 25, but one in four drivers who die are in this age range, due to risk-taking.

Young drivers are more likely to risk driving the morning after drinking (23% compared with 17% of all drivers).
Young drivers are nearly twice as likely to have driven on illegal drugs (11% compared with 6% of all drivers).

Young drivers are more likely to have driven when tired (64% compared with 60%)

Young drivers are more likely to say they speed in town (where they are most likely to kill cyclists or pedestrians) (47% compared with 41%) and in the countryside (where they are most likely to kill themselves) (61% compared with 55%).

Young drivers are more likely to say they have overtaken when they couldn’t see ahead (32% compared with 28%).

Young drivers are more likely to break the speed limit to overtake (77% compared with 66%).

Young drivers are more likely to say they have broken speed limits because they are in a rush (66% compared with 55%).

Young drivers are more likely to speed because it is night (33% compared with 22%)

Young drivers are less likely to slow down in the wet or in glaring sunshine.

Young drivers are less likely to belt up in the front (91% compared with 93%) or back (70% compared with 76%) and less likely to refuse to drive off with a passenger who was unbelted (19% compared with 32%).

Young drivers are less likely to clear their windscreens before setting off or know their correct tyre pressure.

Young drivers would be tougher on traffic offenders who killed, sending them to prison for longer, but are less likely to think that tough penalties would make them take more care.

Young drivers are more likely to talk on a mobile phone while driving (43% compared with 37%) and less likely to think mobiles should be banned while driving (36% compared with 45%).’

Source: Hampshire County Council website 08/06/07

Citroen has now made it even easier for drivers to get behind the wheel of a brand new C2 with the introduction of one year’s free insurance on sport-styled versions of its nippy little supermini.

Drivers as young as 19 can take advantage of this twelve month insurance offer, which is available until the end of July*, in addition to Citroen’s traditional range of great deals. Cashback savings of up to £2,405, depending on model, mean that buyers can drive away in a brand new C2 1.1i Furio for under £8,000.

The tempting free insurance offer is available for 19 to 80 year olds on the 1.1i petrol Furio, for 21 to 80 year olds on 1.4i petrol and 1.4HDi diesel versions, and for buyers aged 25 to 80 on VTR, VTS, By LOEB and Code models.

All sport-styled C2 models combine devilishly dynamic poise with a sporty design that incorporates a rear spoiler, front fog lights and body coloured bumpers and side skirts. Inside, the vibrant appearance continues with bolstered, sports style seats and a leather steering wheel. Alloy wheels, a chrome tailpipe, aluminium pedals and a chrome effect gear knob are also standard on certain models.

* Free Insurance available to retail customers on the UK mainland and Channel Islands for vehicles ordered and registered by 31st July 2007, subject to terms and conditions. Cashbacks are applicable on vehicles ordered and registered by 30th June 2007.

Source: Article taken from Easier Motoring website 08/06/07

A majority of people surveyed by whatcar.com believe the minimum age limit for gaining a driving licence should be 18.

Our survey of over 2500 people shows that 40% believe the lowest legal driving age should be 18, 36% believe it should be 21 and 12% each believe it should be 17 or 16.

The results follow the revelation that three-quarters of driving instructors believe the current driving test for new drivers is not hard enough – and nine out of 10 new drivers agree with that assessment.

Instructors surveyed by insurance firm Direct Line had concerns about driving test standards and skills that aren’t assessed. They feel that the test should cover rural, motorway, dual carriageway and all-weather driving skills in greater depth.

Drivers who had passed their test in the past two years agreed, with 89% saying they wished their examination had been tougher.

The results of the surveys come at a time when the Commons Transport Select Committee is carrying out a review of the driving test. Among the issues it is considering are proposals to raise the minimum age limit to 18.

Other proposals include graduating new licences, so that new drivers are initially barred from driving at night or with more than one passenger, or forcing new drivers to undertake up to 120 hours of practice before taking a test.

What do BADDIA members think?

Above article taken from What Car magazine website 08/06/07

Many drivers say they feel unprepared for the roads
More than half of motorists think the driving test is too easy, it was revealed today.

And as many as 89 per cent of those who have passed the driving test in the last two years would like to see candidates given a tougher examination, a survey from insurance company Direct Line found.

Also, 75 per cent of driving instructors have serious concerns about the test.

Based on responses from 2,304 adults, the survey found that 54 per cent of all drivers found the test too easy and 21 per cent admitted they felt unprepared or incapable of driving alone after gaining a full licence.

Also, 19 per cent said they still struggled to drive at night, with 11 per cent being unhappy on motorways and 23 per cent feeling uncomfortable on icy roads.

Lack of skills
Of those who had passed their driving test in the last two years, 89 per cent said the test could be improved to better prepare them for the road while nearly a quarter said they had been involved in a car accident because of a lack of driving skills.

Nearly all of the 150 driving instructors questioned in a separate survey, and about half of the motorists polled, said the driving test should include motorway training.

Direct Line’s motor spokeswoman Emma Holyer said: ‘Road crashes are the number one killer of people in their teens and 20s in the UK.

‘Our study has revealed the extent to which people feel the driving test has under-prepared them for the roads and, in the interests of safety, we are calling on the Driving Standards Agency to improve the test.’

Source: The Press Association, All Rights Reserved.

Road Safety and Young Drivers

It is a known fact that 17 to 24-year-old drivers accounted for 25 percent of all traffic deaths. However, parents can help their teenagers stay safe behind the wheel in a number of ways.

“While adults drive to get somewhere, younger drivers often see driving as a social event,” explains Paul Burchell, Chairman of Bedford and District Driving Instructors Association “That attitude can contribute to the likelihood of a crash. But there are ways parents can help, whilst they are taking driving lessons and after they have passed their test”

He offers these tips to help parents keep their teenagers safe behind the wheel:

Limiting distractions is a key factor in driving safely. This should include no mobile phone usage while driving as this is as dangerous as drunk driving.

The list of potentially dangerous distractions also includes teenage passengers, iPods, eating food, putting on makeup, heated arguments and disruptive children. Teenagers tend to learn driving habits by observing their parents and, as a result, we become the behind-the-wheel role model for our children long before he or she reaches driving age.

If the parent drives fast and reckless, what is this telling the young driver?

The fact that your teenager passes their driving test and receives a driving license, does not mean he or she has become an expert. The more parents stay involved, teaching and encouraging good habits, the more they lower risk.

Parents should set clear rules and consequences and stick with them and encourage them to take Pass Plus.