Lords look to tackle youth accident rates

Members of the House of Lords are stepping in to try and curb the amount of ‘horrendous’ injuries suffered by young drivers.

Radical solutions are being called for to try and tackle the issue, with Labour Peer Lord Jordan calling for a green paper on young drivers to be issued that will deal with the high number of collisions involving young men in particular.

Lord Jordan called for Lords from each party to work together to find a cross-party solution, noting that a number of Governments had failed when trying to introduce new partisan measures over the years.  Lord Jordan pointed out that young people only account for around one in 14 licensed drivers in the UK and drive less than their older counterparts, but they represent one in five road deaths.

In an encouraging sign, Lord Jordan’s stance was supported by Lord Bradshaw, a Liberal Democrat, who believes that the high number of accidents involving young people is caused by speeding at night.

The discussion was directed towards Baroness Kramer, the Liberal Democrat Minister of State for Transport, who accepted that young drivers were "disproportionately involved in collisions" but also noted that Britain has some of the safest roads in the world

"There is a difficult balance to strike between promoting young drivers' safety and their freedom to access work and education," she added.

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