Safe Speed Forums

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/18/teen.d ... index.html

"Safety groups say distractions and risks grow sharply for teen drivers at night and when they travel with their friends."

"Regardless of what the state law says, parents should not allow their teen to ride with other teen drivers, nor should they be allowed to transport other teens in the first year of driving," Darbelnet said.

Nearly 18 months ago.....
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=659

I still say make these simple changes

1. Make the age for getting a licence for a motorcycle and a car the same.
2. Only allow people under 21 to drive vehicles below an agreed power level
3. Anyone under 21 not permitted to carry passengers unless there is someone over 25 in the vehicle.

And you will save more lives than ever could be hoped for under present simplistic policy of automated speed limit enforcement.


The present policy is madness! You need an extra licence to carry passengers in Bus or a Taxi.

Hmmm. Nearly 18 months ago but repeating the solecism:


So only drivers under 21 can drive vehicles below a stated power threshold? Or do you mean:

"Drivers under 21 shall not drive vehicles above a stated power threshold"?

Seriously, I could be persuaded to support restrictions of this nature if there was objective evidence to show that's where the problems lie. Is there?

A problem with anything like that is that it potentially leads to stupid restrictions - as stated a mother would not be able to drive her baby in the car, or a married couple could not go together to the shops.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

2) Sorry but I don't agree that the power of the vehicle would much difference. You can still run over a school kid or have a head on collison with another car in a 1 litre Mini. By reducing the power limit on the car what problems are you trying to address? Speeding? Is that what causes the majority of accidents on our roads? It's not like there are many 17 year olds driving about in Ferraris and Porsches anyway. Most teen crashes probably occur in 1.0 or 1.2 Corsas. It's not the power of the engine (hence the speed) that's the problem here.

3) Fully agree with PeterE on this one.

The high cost of insurance also prohibits most cars over 1 litre anyway. A young person is looking at spending £1500 ish to insure just about anything which is a substantial chunk of money. More are actually buying brand new cars as they often come with free insurance which pretty much pays their depreciation in the first year.

I don't know whether giving them points for being in any accidents in the first 2 years of driving would help or just lead to less reporting. eg 1 point for being in it or 5 for causing it. If they had already got points for any other reason then one fault accident would get them banned and they would have to take a re-test.

A point on your licence for being rear ended by some richard in a traffic light queue - that's a bit bloody harsh isn't it?

Hmmmm - whilst I agree with the driver who causes the accident being penalised, I certainly don't agree with the penalising of the innocent driver!

It annoys me that when an 'accident' happens, it is deemed just that, an 'accident'! Personally, I would prosecute everyone who causes an accident.

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

With the inquiry based court systems in europe I might agree, but with the adversarial based system we have over here I'm not keen, police and CPS in particular have a history of with holding evidence, quite frankly I can't trust the system to carry out a prosecution fairly or correctly.

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Gordon Brown saying I got the country into it's current economic mess so I'll get us out of it is the same as Bomber Harris nipping over to Dresden and offering to repair a few windows.

Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is done.

http://www.wildcrafts.co.uk

There is a case to be made, which we have discussed before somewhere on this forum, that power limits can act as an incentive to take higher-level training. But simply as a "first two years" thing they are of no value IMV.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Yes, and power limits would send a powerful message that society believes they still have a lot to learn. That's a very important message IMO.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety