1 July 2024
The AA is calling for the introduction of a Graduated Driver Licence (GDL), which would help address teenage deaths on the roads by limiting same-age passengers for newly qualified drivers for six months once they have passed their test.
An average of five people per day are killed on UK roads and 82 are seriously injured, but one in five young drivers crash within a year of passing their test and 1500+ young drivers are killed or seriously injured each year.
"We owe it to the next generation to introduce positive measures that will help give them healthy and prosperous lives.”
The call comes as the General Election enters its final week.
Key Facts:
“We can’t sit back any longer and just watch as more and more young people are killed or seriously injured in road collisions."
Edmund King, AA president, said: “One of the major issues that needs to be addressed is the needless deaths of young drivers, their passengers and others caught up in these crashes. Each year nearly 5,000 people are killed or seriously injured in crashes involving at least one young driver. One in five young drivers crash within a year of passing their test.
"The AA believes we need a system of graduated learning with a logbook whereby all learners need to demonstrate their skills on all types of roads and crucially on rural roads where 71% of new driver fatal crashes occur, and in different weather conditions and different times of day or night.
"Once they have passed their test the driver shouldn’t be allowed to carry same age passengers for at least six months as research shows that with every same age passenger, they are four times more likely to crash. Most people don’t realise, until it is too late, that road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults ages 5-29 years according to the World Health Organisation. We owe it to the next generation to introduce positive measures that will help give them healthy and prosperous lives."
Sharron Huddleston, who has formed the Forget-me-not Families Uniting group from those like herself who have lost loved ones in crashes, said: “Graduated licences are a crucial issue. How many more young people need to die before action is taken?
"We can’t sit back any longer and just watch as more and more young people are killed or seriously injured in road collisions.
"Our message to all political parties is simple – listen to us, listen to the experts, listen to The AA and learn from other countries, who have seen a huge reduction in young driver and passenger deaths after introducing graduated driving licensing for young novice drivers. My daughter, Caitlin, would be alive today if action had been taken when the concept of graduated licences was floated years ago."
** AA Yonder General Election online survey of 11,963 AA members,11 to 23 January 2024. Yonder is a founding member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.