Young drivers are having to turn down work because they are being ‘hammered’ by the soaring cost of car insurance, a leading MP has warned.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Nigel Evans said that young people could face a genuine financial conflict between accepting a job and affording the car insurance to drive to work.
High costs mean drivers are being ‘punished before they have even sat behind the wheel’, he warned.
Mr Evans argued that people in rural areas are particularly badly hit since a lack of regular public transport leaves them with no alternative to driving.
The MP called on insurance firms to use ‘more imagination’ to solve the problem.
Possible solutions could include the offer of a rebate after a year of no claims, or an insurance quote based on the scores in the practical driving test, Mr Evans suggested.
‘I do recognise that young people are in a high risk bracket for insurance, but the vast majority of them are not involved in accidents nor do they drive dangerously,’ he added.
The MP said he hopes to meet with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to discuss how to take the issue forward.
According to figures from the AA, young drivers have seen their motor insurance premiums jump by up to 90 per cent in just two years.
Men under the age of 22 have seen their payments rise by an average of £1,427 – or 82 per cent – to £3,163 a year.
Young women’s premiums have also surged by £50, or 90 per cent, up to an average of £1,799.
Female drivers could also be hit by another hike of up to £1,315 from the end of the year due to an EU ruling, which will force insurance companies to charge male and female drivers the same premiums.
High insurance costs may also be leading to young drivers putting themselves at risk by skipping their car insurance, a firm has warned.
One in five young drivers is considering breaking the law and driving without insurance, according to a survey by Young Marmalade.
Meanwhile one in three has thought about modifying the information they supply to their insurer to bring down their quote, the insurer found.
The ABI commented that employment status is one of the factors that insurers use to set premiums.
‘Many insurers have reported that there is an additional risk associated with being unemployed. We understand that this can cause difficulties for people, but it is a quantified factor supported by evidence,’ it said.
James Dalton, Assistant Director of Motor at the association suggested that young drivers can take measures to reduce their premiums, such as shopping around, perhaps changing their car or keeping their mileage down.
He added that higher premiums for young drivers reflect the greater risk they pose. Young drivers aged 17 – 24 account for 12 per cent of license holders, but 25 per cent of all road accidents where someone is injured.
‘To improve the road safety of young drivers and reduce their motor insurance costs, we have long argued for reform and we are urging the government to introduce a minimum learning period, a structured learning programme, graduated driver licensing and a zero alcohol limit for young drivers,’ Mr Dalton said
Passsing your driving test in Bedford with a driving school or driving instructor can greatly increase your chance of getting a job!! Finding employment will be easier as you will have more freedom & won’t have to rely on finding a job near public transport. You can work night shifts or evening shift & won’t need other people to pick you up or drop you off at work!
Many driving schools in Bedford offer a course called PASS PLUS which can reduce your insurance costs. Driving instructors take you out on various roads to develop your existing driving skills, once you have passed your driving test in Bedford. Topics covered in the PASS PLUS course in Bedford are motoways, dual carriageways, rural driving, night driving, town driving & all weather driving.
PASS PLUS courses vary between driving schools but your would be looking to pay around £150 (which covers the minimum 6 hours required).
TONY Davison still remembers the knock on the door that dark winter’s morning.
“It was twenty to four,” he recites, the details as fresh now as the day they happened. “Fourth of November 2002.
“The policeman said there had been a serious road crash in Bramhope and there were fatalities. That’s all it took to shatter our lives.”
Tony’s son Adrian, 18, was a passenger in the car of a friend who drove after drinking. It crashed and both boys died.
It would have been Adrian’s birthday last Saturday, his 27th. What should have been a day of celebration was marked instead with a visit to his graveside.
“Life moves on, but at the same time he will never be forgotten,” says Tony. “Anniversaries are still difficult, even though it’s coming up to nine years ago. It’s as fresh in my mind now as it was the day we were told.
And it will be until the day I leave this mortal coil.”
Adrian was one of a disproportionate number of young men who die every year on our roads.
West Yorkshire road safety charity Brake used its annual international conference last week to put the issue under the spotlight.
Every year in Britain one young male driver in every 60 is involved in a crash that results in death or injury to themselves, a passenger or another road user.
While young drivers aged between 17 and 24 account for 12 per cent of licence holders they are involved in one in four road deaths and serious injuries.
One in five will crash in the first six months after passing their test and every year more than 3,300 young drivers and passengers aged 17 to 24 are killed or suffer a life-changing injury as a result of a road crash.
Brake says the current system under which young people learn to drive is inadequate, leaving young drivers without sufficient experience and maturity to face the complex challenges of driving unsupervised and unrestricted.
Its response has been to launch the Too Young to Die campaign, which calls for a system of graduated driver licensing so new drivers can build up their skills and experience bit by bit.
Under the scheme, learners would spend at least a year taking lessons before they were allowed to sit a test.
Once they passed, new drivers would be allowed to drive unsupervised but would have restrictions on their licence for at least two years.
These would include an effective zero tolerance drink drive limit, plus restrictions on passengers and driving at night.
“It’s all about finding a way to ensure young drivers learn to drive in a safe and protected way as much as possible,” says Ellen Booth, campaigns director for Brake.
“Young drivers are disproportionately affected by road crashes, significantly so. A young person is more likely to die on the road than any other cause.
“And the evidence is quite clear that males of all ages, not just young men, are more likely to take risks on the roads. So it’s all to do with driver attitude and behaviour.”
Speeding, taking unnecessary risks and using a mobile phone are some of the factors associated with an increased crash risk among men.
Males are also more likely to get behind the wheel when they’re tired and keep driving even if they feel sleepy.
The risks faced by young male drivers peak at 17, when they are in their first year of motoring.
“There are a number of factors, especially those of age and inexperience, that mean young drivers are more likely to have an accident,” says Ellen.
“When you combine those with the additional risk-taking habits that men exhibit they make young male drivers the most at risk group on the road.”
Tony Davison has been involved with Brake for several years, speaking to thousands of school and college students about his own experience.
He, for one, supports calls for the Government to make changes to the current system of driver licensing.
“The trouble is that young people don’t really learn to drive until after they have passed their test. All we do in this country is teach people to pass their test.
“In Germany it’s a totally different structure – they have to do night driving, motorway driving and there are none of these seven-day crash courses.
“We need to educate young people. They don’t think it’s going to happen to them, but it will happen to some of them.
“It’s not about scaremongering, it’s a proven fact: young males between 17 and 25 are the ones who are most likely to be involved in a serious crash.
“There needs to be a coherent strategy which first of all has to be incorporated into the national curriculum, not ad hoc as it is at the moment.
“Some schools are incredibly pro-active, but there are lots of high schools in Leeds we haven’t visited. To me it has to become part of the national curriculum, delivered to those youngsters who are coming up to learning to drive.”
He was the ultimate New Labour political survivor – a wily operator who negotiated the twists and turns of the Blair and Brown Governments to serve 13 years in the Cabinet.
But adjusting to life after more than a decade of being chauffeured everywhere has left Jack Straw flummoxed by the rules of the road – so the former Home Secretary is learning to drive again.
The Mail on Sunday understands that Mr Straw, MP for Blackburn, is undertaking a ‘driving refresher course’ and has also received coaching from a senior Labour colleague on coping with motorway driving.
Last night a friend of Mr Straw said: ‘Jack was pretty much driven everywhere for 13 years. He did a spot of driving on minor roads to run the odd errand but not much else.
‘Perhaps wisely, he is taking some refresher lessons for driving on motorways and in big cities, that sort of thing.’
Perhaps Mr Straw worries about breaking one of his own laws – in 2009, as Justice Secretary, he announced that the maximum penalty for reckless driving would be more than doubled from a two-year jail term to five years’ imprisonment.
The change in the law led to a rise in the number of drivers – particularly those of advanced years – opting to take refresher lessons.
While almost every other founding member of the 1997 New Labour Government fell by the wayside – either the victims of scandal, exhausted by office or caught on the wrong side of the Blair-Brown feud – Mr Straw was one of only three, along with Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown, to remain in Cabinet from 1997 to 2010.
He also served as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House.
Mr Straw, who stood down from Labour’s front bench last year, was not available for comment last night.
Jack Straw should contact one of the Bedford driving schools or driving instructors in Bedford to ask about taking driving lessons in Bedford. Many Bedford driving instructors can offer driving lessons or refresher courses / refresher lessons to those drivers that don’t have confidence to deal with todays roads.
Fully qualified driving instructors featured on www.bedford-driving-schools.co.uk should be able to offer help & advice to drivers that haven’t driven for a long time. There are Bedford driving instructors who also offer the PASS PLUS course to new, recently qualified drivers. Completing the PASS PLUS course with a driving instructor or driving school in Bedford can help to lower car insurance premiums, reduce your fuel costs & develop your existing driving skills to make you a safer driver.
Why not contact a driving instructor or driving school in Bedford & ask about refresher driving lessons or PASS PLUS in Bedford.
The UK Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, has proposed to increase the speed limit on UK motorways from 70- to 80mph.
The idea behind the change is to reduce journey times, as the Government believes that the economy could be improved if motorists spend less time behind the wheel.
Mr. Hammond said that safety might not be the only factor to consider when it comes to judging how fast cars travel on the roads.
Speaking to the ‘Daily Telegraph’, he said: “We need to do this on a pretty rigorous cost-benefit basis. At the moment there are a clear set of criteria for making these decisions. Perhaps we ought to ask if we are using the right set of criteria.”
Motorway speed limits in the UK are significantly lower than those in other European countries. The maximum speed on similar roads in France and Italy is 81mph. In Spain, Portugal and Ireland it is 75mph.
The UK’s 70mph motorway speed limit was introduced in 1965, following a series of reports of manufacturers and car owners testing high performance cars to their limits.
There were 132 deaths on UK motorways in 2009, which is the last year for which figures are available. However, motorists are more likely to experience an accident on town and country roads with lower speed limits, poorer visibility, less space and no division between oncoming traffic.
Most driving instructors and driving schools in Bedford, Bedfordshire listed on www.bedford-driving-schools.co.uk are able to offer motorway tuition, motorway driving lessons, motorway lessons in Bedford. Many of Bedford’s driving schools & driving instructors can also offer the Pass Plus course which is designed for new drivers, once they have passed their driving test. The Pass Plus course includes motorway driving & your driving instructor in Bedford will help you to build up your confidence with new driving skills. You can find contact details of various different Bedford driving instructors & Bedford driving schools on www.bedford-driving-schools.co.uk. Give them a call & remember to mention you found their details on www.bedford-driving-schools.co.uk.
Young drivers should learn how to drive for a year before being able to sit their practical driving test, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
A poll commissioned by the body revealed that three in four people think a 12-month learning period would effectively reduce the amount of young drivers involved in road accidents.
The proposed measures could also lead to a reduction in car insurance rates as fewer accidents could occur on British roads if the ABI’s findings were adopted by the Government.
Furthermore, 69% of 2,500 adults surveyed backed additional restrictions on the number of passengers that newly qualified drivers could legally carry, while 68% supported a more structured education programme to inform young drivers of the dangers of being behind the wheel.
ABI general insurance and health director Nick Starling said: “Introducing a longer and more structured learning period may frustrate some youngsters, eager to get behind the wheel. But better this than they become another tragic statistic.
“Too many young drivers are still killed or seriously injured on our roads. A car is a potential lethal weapon, and we must provide more help to young motorists to better deal with the dangers of driving.
“A minimum one-year learning period, and young driver passenger restrictions, would help ensure that today’s young drivers become tomorrow’s safer motorists.”
The calls for tougher guidelines have come after it emerged that that despite a fall in the overall number of road accident casualties, more young drivers are killed or seriously injured on the British roads now than 15 years ago.
Road safety minister Mike Penning revealed that the current driving test could be reviewed in the future.
He added: “We want all new drivers to be able to drive safely and independently and are considering how both training and testing can be improved to achieve this.”
If this plan to have a minimum one year of learning to drive comes in to force you may want to think about learning to drive sooner rather than later!!! Contact a Bedford driving school or driving instructor in Bedford such as Txt-Drive Driving School in Bedford or ASM Driving School for information about learning to drive in Bedford.
There could be a new driving test to try to further cut road accidents & deaths which could make learning to drive harder to make the process longer! Don’t put off learning to drive - LEARN TO DRIVE NOW!!
Millions of motorists could be risking their lives and the lives of others due to driving with poor eyesight, according to new research by LV= car insurance.
Despite 45 per cent of all motorists being prescribed glasses or contact lenses for driving, almost one in ten do not always wear them, posing a safety risk to themselves and other road users.
Of the motorists who don’t currently wear prescribed glasses or lenses, nearly a quarter admitted their eyesight was “not perfect”, and one in ten have trouble seeing when driving at night.
The penalties for driving without meeting the visual requirements include a fine of £1,000, three penalty points and even disqualification from driving.
John O’Roarke, LV= car insurance managing director, said: “The number plate test is a compulsory requirement of the driving test for a very good reason. However, this is no substitute for regular eye examinations as eyesight can change significantly over time.
“Driving with poor eyesight is a criminal offence and can result in a fine, penalty points or even a ban, as well as invalidating your car insurance when it comes to making a claim.”
In other news, a police safety crackdown in Scotland this week has found 313 people not wearing a seatbelt.
Fuel costs mounting up? Visit fuelcards.co.uk for the best deals on fuelcards .
Many driving schools in Bedford and Bedford driving instructors will require a quick eye sight test before starting your first driving lesson in Bedford. Many will ask that you read a car number plate from the required distance (depending on if a new style or old style number plate).
At the start of your driving test in Bedford, the examiner will ask you to read a car number plate from the required distance (as described above), failure to do this will result in you being unable to continue with your driving test!! So www.bedford-driving-schools.co.uk suggest that you get your eyes tested a few weeks BEFORE your driving test in Bedford to enure you CAN read the car number plate!!
Being able to see properly (reading a car number plate from the required distance) is essential to road safety in Bedford and elsewhere in the UK!!
You can compare driving lesson prices in Bedford from driving schools and driving instructors in Bedford. Compare by price, car, transmission, instructor gender, days worked etc. Just visit www.bedford-driving-schools.co.uk for more information – it’s FREE to use & it’s FREE to list your details if you are a Bedford driving school or Bedford driving instructor!!! We DO NOT charge you for any pupil leads – it is a TOTALLY FREE service!!!
Two police officers are being investigated by their own force after crashing an arrested man’s high-powered sports car into the front gardens of two local homes.
The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers stopped a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo in the early hours of Friday morning after spotting it being driven in an erratic manner on Hale Road, Hale Barns.
They subsequently arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of drink-driving and then decided to drive the 156mph car away from the scene.
Minutes later the Evo hit a wall and ploughed into two front gardens at the junction of Hale Road and Rydal Drive, ending up on its side.
One of the officers suffered minor injuries in the crash and the other was severely shaken, but no members of the public were hurt.
GMP immediately began an investigation and suspended the two officers from driving duties.
Chief Superintendent Mark Roberts apologised to local residents for the problems the crash had caused.
“I can assure the local community that this incident will be rigorously investigated,” he added.
One of the homeowners, Russell Lomas, told the BBC: “I was very shocked this morning when I was told two police officers were driving the car.”
www.bedford-driving-schools.co.uk wonders if this is a good example for learner drivers in Bedford? Surely the Police have a duty to set an example to the public! Driving instructors in Bedford and Bedford based driving schools try to get learner drivers into good habbits which they hope last the driver a life time. The DSA’s tagline is ‘Safe Driving For Life’.
When Jane Smiley’s 17-year-old son said he planned to join a friend driving to Seattle from New York, it bought back memories of her own epic road trips.
When I came home for the summer after my first year of college, I told my mother that my best friend and I were driving to California. She laughed out loud – 2,000 miles in a what? Well, my best friend had an old Chevy. What could go wrong? The following year, I did drive from New York City to St Louis (1,000 miles) with my new boyfriend and his best friend, in a “driveaway car” that the two of them found in New York City. A driveaway car was one that needed to be transported from one region to another. There were no guarantees of roadworthiness, and the boys were not, of course, to be paid. It was free transportation. As I remember, arrangements were completed towards dusk, we set out heading vaguely west, and we had just enough money for petrol – we arrived, crossing the Mississippi river the next morning with 25c between us. We were proud of that: perfect planning.
I don’t know whether the road trip propensity is genetic or environmental, but when my 17-year-old informed me this spring that he and his friend were driving to Seattle (970 miles) on a Thursday, staying there for one night, and returning Saturday, I didn’t bother laughing. I knew that if I laughed, they could get the thin end of the wedge in, and I would find myself flying to Seattle to help them shift out of first gear when faced with one of those precipitous hills.
Where were they planning to sleep? They didn’t know. Was the factory they hoped to visit open on Friday and did it allow visitors? They didn’t know. Had the older boy (a mere 18) ever been anywhere? Nowhere north of San Francisco (that was bad enough – the first time my stepdaughter drove in San Francisco, aged 24, she got out of the car at the top of Nob Hill and wept). How much money did they have? A couple of hundred dollars.
I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning to drive part. It has filled me with anxiety not only about the children, but also about my former self and my friends. I once thought it was funny that my stepbrother sneaked out of the house after midnight, ran down the street to where the 10-year-old unregistered heap he’d bought with a friend for $50 was parked, and drove around town for two or three hours. It once amused me that it took me three tries to pass my driver’s test and that my driving instructor told my mother that I was the least talented person behind the wheel that she had ever taught. Now I worry that, though I haven’t had an accident in 44 years, I have passed on this unfortunate propensity, not only to my children but also to my children’s children, unto automobile eternity.
There are several methods for introducing your children to driving, and all of them are bad. Probably the worst is to put it off. The worst driver I knew was a man who grew up in New York City, and didn’t learn to drive until he was 22. Driving never became second nature to him. Even though he hunched over the wheel, hyper-attentive, his reactions weren’t automatic, the way they were with that other man I know, who grew up in Iowa and was driving himself to school at 14. Of course, the second man always drives too fast – his confidence in his reaction times is absolute – and the first man has never had a wreck, but when I am driving with him, he is so jumpy that it feels like a wreck is imminent.
In California, there were so many accidents that the state instituted a policy of graduated licensing – a 16-year-old takes an eye test and a written test, then a mandated driver’s course, then a driving test. After that, they have to drive for a year before they can have other kids in the car.
Teenage drivers are also subject to an 11pm to 5am curfew. This policy has been in effect for three or four years, and has cut down on teen mortality. However, most new drivers I know have hit something. When I had had my licence for about three months, a kid my age rear-ended me, though not very hard. The daughter of a friend of mine wrecked her car while drinking from a soda can. My most responsible child sneezed, jerked the wheel, and was spun by a truck she was passing across the central reservation and into oncoming traffic (she wasn’t hurt, but the car was dented on all four sides).
My son’s father was a passenger in a truck that skidded, and flipped into a cornfield. The boys in the truck bed were thrown clear, no one was much hurt and the boys used hammers to pound out the dents. My stepbrother avoided going off a bridge by hitting a streetlight; when my stepfather was taken to assess and pay for the damage, the city assessor’s assistant leaned against the next streetlight down, and it fell into the river. Every light pole on the bridge turned out to be termite-infested. When my son gets into his car, I remind myself that we have all survived. He has survived – a few weeks before he asked me whether he could take his road trip, he fell asleep at the wheel (after his 5am curfew) and hit a mailbox, writing off his car. He was not hurt and does not intend to drive on the road trip but, really, I don’t even want him in a car. I want him quietly playing video games in his room, taking the bus to school, and wearing a microchip in the back of his neck so that I can locate him at any moment.
Except that, of course, I don’t. We Americans have all seen the USA from the backseat of our parents’ Chevrolet, and the view is very constricted – their old grey heads are in the way and their conversation is utterly banal, as in, “Honey, did you forget your pills? I think you forgot your pills,” or “Did I really leave my handbag on the roof of the car? I can’t find it anywhere” (Yes, I did do this. A sympathetic woman made her husband stop his car so that she could run across two lanes of interstate and retrieve it. She called me. She said, “Oh, dear. I’ve done that myself.” She was, and is, a saint.) The side windows seem very small and they never allow you to view the whole panorama.
After I threw off the parental traces, I couldn’t get enough of road trips. East and west across the US, usually along Interstate 80 (New York to San Francisco), but sometimes up and down Interstate 35 (north to south-west), I-95 (Boston to Florida), I-5 (up and down the west coast), I-90, the northern route, through Montana and the Dakotas and, my current favourite, California 101, north and south just inside the coastal mountains, through a landscape that is bright green in the winter and rich gold in the summer. In 1970-71, I hitchhiked through Europe and the UK, and there was something alluring about our idleness and our mistakes. We learned much more and felt much more not knowing where we were going but finding ourselves standing by the side of the road than we did with timetables in our pockets and the scenery rushing by outside the rail coach window. We were, perhaps, protected by our size (he was 6ft 10in) but we never had a single problem – nothing was stolen, no threats were made, in fact more often than not, those who picked us up did us favours. No, my son cannot go to Seattle. What are the parents of the other boy thinking?
Except that in California, the other boy is on his own. He is 18. He can join the army, he can vote, he can drive to Seattle, he can do what he wants. On Tuesday we have a family meeting. Beforehand, the boys have to come up with a plan about where they will go, where they will stay (hotels won’t let them in), and what they will see.
The other boy turns out to be an A-student. His car is a new Subaru. They are willing to stay in California. They each have a friend to visit. They head off to Sacramento. Well, Sacramento. Is there a place more dull? They are gone for two nights and three days. I yield to temptation and text my son (who I know isn’t driving) once a day. Where are you? Sactown. Are you OK? Yeah. Where are you? Davis? Are you having fun? Yeah. Mostly, I know, they are driving and talking and stopping and eating. They spend one night in the car and one night with friends. They make it home safely.
This is only the beginning. Might he drive his car to summer camp? Where would he park it? In the parking lot. I duck this one by telling him to call the camp and ask them. Might he drive by himself to Davis (three hours, many busy highways) to his stepbrother’s graduation? No, it’s ridiculous to take two cars. What is his ultimate goal in life? It is not making a million dollars, saving the world, or becoming president – it is heading south on the Pan-American highway, looking for Tierra Del Fuego, not because he is fascinated by Latin American culture but because he wants to go. And go some more. In an age when a 13-year-old is climbing Mount Everest and 16-year-olds are sailing solo around the world, this is a rather modest goal. Peak oil means he’ll never get to do it. Peak oil means he shouldn’t do it. Peak oil means he should do it soon, while he still has the chance. Peak oil means that he should go by bicycle – even more dangerous.
In Anthony Trollope’s 1877 novel The American Senator, two characters spend most of the day travelling 60 miles by train to Cheltenham and, in doing so, remind me what a luxury the automobile is, not only because it gives us speed and independence, but because it invites us into the world outside the windshield. Shepherding all those kids through the narrow pass that is learning to drive reminds me how costly the luxury is, not only in terms of environmental damage, but also in terms of danger. When I was 17, we didn’t know as much about the costs as we do today, so we got to enjoy the freedom without many pangs of conscience. I don’t think my son will be as lucky. But he has to learn to drive, and he has to learn to go out into the world, and when I am tempted to say, “Stay home,” I must say, “Have a good time,” instead.
Private Life by Jane Smiley is out now in paperback, Faber, £7.99
Listening to sport on the radio is as risky as drink driving, new research has shown.
Sports fans, who may currently be distracted by coverage of Wimbledon, theWorld Cupand international cricket matches, may be putting themselves and the lives of others at risk.
The risk increases if the listener has an emotional attachment to a team or an interest in a particular outcome.
Reactions can be slowed by up to 20 per cent scientists at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) found – adding a six metre stopping time if a car is travelling at 70mph.
The report said: “To put this into context, this increase in distance travelled is 10 per cent further than the additional stopping distance when driving with a blood alcohol level at the UK legal limit (80mg/ml).
The number of incidents of hard breaking at the last minute almost doubled when motorists were listening to sports commentary.
The report added: “This suggests that the motorists were not paying enough attention to the road and had to make late decision to respond to the conditions and drivers on the road around them.”
The researchers noted that most motorists did not recognise listening to sport as an equivalent distraction to arguing in the car or handling stress.
TRLs Dr Nick Reed said: “At particularly tense times, such as penalty shootout, it may be safer to find a safe place to park and enjoy the action without risking an accident.”
The study followed the reactions of 18 participants aged 25-45 (nine of whom were male and nine female).
This video from the DSA YouTube Channel gives an insight into what the new independent driving part of the driving test involves. The independent driving part of the test will be used in practical driving tests from October 2010.