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Driving Test | UK Driving Test Advice
Driving Newsletter - Tips and Advice on Passing your Driving Test
5 Oct 2012

A Year to Learn to Drive

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) have made recommendations to help stop the amount of death and injury that befalls our younger generation when they get behind the wheel of a car.

They’ve recommended that learner drivers take a year learning to drive before they sit their test and take to the open road solo. This would give them a better experience level over all kinds of motoring situations prior to sitting a driving test.  Along with this suggestion there is also calls to restrict the amount of young passengers that new drivers can carry, curb their after dark driving and lower the alcohol limit to zero for a probation term after passing their test.

With statistics which suggest that an eighteen year old is 3 times more likely to be involved in a traffic accident than a forty eight year old, these measures, whilst they will seem draconian to many new drivers, are potentially a necessary evil if we are to try to prevent the tragic waste of young life on our roads. The amount of drivers aged between 17 and 25 accounts for only 8% of UK drivers but this age group accounts for a third of all drivers killed.

With learning to drive already a costly business, this move would be likely to compound the problem, although in the future this could well result in lower insurance premiums and if it makes our roads safer and keeps more young drivers alive and well then maybe this is not such a radical move at all.