Banning teens carrying passengers not road deaths solution

The calls have been thrust into the spotlight by the mother of a teenager who died with his friends in a car in North Wales. There was nothing to suggest they were driving foolishly, it was just a tragic accident.

And earlier this month, we saw the tragic death of 17-year-old Darwen teenager Demi-Leigh Davies on the M65, who was a passenger being driven by another 17-year-old, with other teens in the car too.

Now, with the AA’s support, there are calls to ban under 21s from carrying similar-age passengers in an attempt to stop more tragedies.

But this knee-jerk call ignores the real cause of road fatalities and overlooks far simpler and smarter ways of saving lives on our roads.

First, a simple look at the stats. In East Lancashire over the past 12 months, there have been 16 convictions that the Lancashire Telegraph has reported on for causing death by careless or dangerous driving.

Demi-Leigh Davies, 17, died in a crash on the M65 (Image: Police) The average age of these convictions? 44 years old. So when it comes to poor driving that claims lives on our roads, age is irrelevant.

The youngest killer, John Lyle, was 21, the oldest Neil Pemberton at 81.

There were six killers under the age of 30 and five of pension age or higher.

We could get into an age debate, with the sensible suggestion that over 70s are required to prove their cognition to keep their licence, but that’s another argument for another day.

The most common causes of deaths on the roads are speed and drink/drugs.

The easiest way to tackle the issue is a zero-tolerance approach to drink and drug driving, and putting speed limiters on vehicles.

The national speed limit is 70 miles per hour, therefore there is no need whatsoever for any vehicle to be able to travel at a higher speed, so cap the speed. It will nip idiots speeding in the bud.

It's time for a zero-tolerance approach to drink and drug driving (Image: Contributed)

With new cars and the technology available today it should also be easy to apply this limit across all roads with GPS tracking, so cars can’t go over 30mph in a 30 zone, for example.

This would save lives and pretty much eliminate all speeding. Anyone seen travelling too quickly would have clearly tampered with their vehicle and can be easily spotted and prosecuted.

It would be the end of boy racers and anti-social driving, something I’m sure we would all appreciate.

A zero-tolerance rule on drink and drugs driving - ie. not 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath, the current limit, but 0mcg - would also end any ambiguity around how much a person can drink and stay below the limit, and take these selfish, thoughtless drivers off the roads.

Finally, the calls by the AA miss the key point of what learning to drive is all about. It’s about independence, going exploring with friends without relying on Dad’s taxi or unreliable public transport.

Being able to go wherever you want, with whoever you want. Robbing our young people of that earned right goes against our basic principles as a nation.