LIFESTYLE YOUNG DRIVERS
Annual car driver fatalities
150 100
Male 2000-02 Female 2000-02
50 0
DRIVER AGE
“If you’re just learning to pass a test and you’re not learning about safety, then it’s your own life that you’re
putting at risk”
ELLEN BOOTH, CAMPAIGN OFFICER FOR BRAKE
✒ DSA recommends 45 hours of
professional lessons, plus another 22 hours of private practice. Its Pass Plus scheme, a six-part training course taken after the test which focuses on driving in different conditions, is an increasingly popular way for young drivers to build on experience and reduce their insurance premiums. Finding an ADI (Approved Driving
Instructor) and driving school that is concerned about safety is an important part of this, says Ellen Booth. “If you’re just learning to pass a test and you’re not learning about safety, then it’s your own life that you’re putting at risk,” she says. It’s something that John Frank, who runs
Prontopass driving school, focuses on in lessons. “I don’t allow people to take the test until they’re ready,” he says. “There are a lot of instructors out there who’ll say, ‘oh go on, you take your test’ but if someone slips through who isn’t ready, it’s a danger for the rest of us, isn’t it?” The key to safety, he says, is in changing young drivers’ attitudes. “A 17-year-old who shows they can pass the test is at the required standard, but the problem is keeping them at that standard. It’s on their own shoulders to behave when they’re out and about.” A sense of personal responsibility and a better attitude
to road safety in young drivers can be achieved by better education in schools, says Rob Ffyfe, a trainee driving instructor and volunteer with Brake’s 2Young2Die campaign, who conducts 90-minute workshops in schools as a way of engaging with 16- to 17-year-olds about driver safety. While there is a smattering of education out there – the DSA visits schools to deliver its Arrive Alive Road Safety Programme – it needs to be co-ordinated, says Rob. “It should become part and parcel of the school academic year. You wouldn’t even need to burden the existing teaching staff with it, because there are people like me who will do it on a voluntary basis.”
68 FIRST ELEVEN SUMMER 2010
“It really does make a difference,” says Sophie Voice,
17, whose class was impressed by a two-day presentation organised by Surrey County Council on safe driving at Godalming College. It included talks by parents who had lost their children in car accidents and drivers, not much older than Sophie’s class, who were now in wheelchairs owing to dangerous driving. “It changed our views dramatically. Suddenly my friends were thinking about their speed, how many passengers they carried and not playing loud music. They want to be more in control.” Reducing the number of young driver accidents inevitably
would have a knock-on-effect on the cost of insuring what is considered a high-risk group. Premium rates for young drivers can rise to £4,000 per annum or higher in inner-city areas. Such high costs can have negative effects on safety. It
sometimes results in uninsured drivers ‘fronting’ – where a young person buys and registers a car in their own name, but tells the insurer that the parent is the main driver. The penalties for this can be severe. Young drivers are also forced into buying cheap, second-hand cars, which in turn results in more crashes. It’s a vicious circle, but Young Marmalade, the combined car purchase and insurance scheme for young drivers, is providing an alternative. Winner of the 2009 Prince Michael International Road
Safety Award for its work with young drivers, Young Marmalade provides safer cars which have at least four or fi ve stars on the Euro NCAP safety rating. It insists that its drivers take the Pass Plus and implements a £45 supplement charge to young drivers who get behind the wheel between 11pm and 5am. Co-founder Nigel Lacey points out that while, according to government statistics, 21 per cent of young drivers crash in their fi rst year, at Young Marmalade, that percentage falls to seven per cent. As a result, it can offer signifi cantly better car and insurance packages while helping young drivers to stay safe. That’s something which can help put every parent’s mind at rest. %
FURTHER INFORMATION
Safest cars
The following are 5★ on the Euro NCAP safety ratings. Prices are those found at Young Marmalade, some margin of which is used to help off set the price of insurance.
★ Fiat 500 £8,887 ★ Ford Fiesta £9,381 ★ Renault Clio £10,496 ★ Vauxhall Corsa £9.381 ★ Volkswagen Polo £9,910
Driving schools
BSM.co.uk – nationwide
Passplus.co.uk – nationwide
Prontopass.co.uk – Bolton, Blackburn, Ormskirk, Preston, Southport, Wigan
Reddrivingschool.com – nationwide
Theaa.com – nationwide
Young driver insurance
Endsleigh.co.uk – sources cheap car insurance for learner drivers.
Gocompare.com – compare young driver car insurance.
i-kube.co.uk – off ers discounted car insurance for young drivers.
Moneysupermarket.com – compare young driver car insurance.
Youngmarmalade.co.uk – combined car purchase and insurance scheme for young drivers.
WWW.FIRSTELEVENMAGAZINE.CO.UK
10-15 16-19 20-24
25-29 30-34
35-39
40-44 45-49
50-54 55-59
60-64 65-69
70-74 75-79 80-84
85-89 90-94 95-99
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