Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Paragraph: 32
Research conducted by the insurance industry shows that a significant proportion of older novice drivers—that...
Conclusion
Research conducted by the insurance industry shows that a significant proportion of older novice drivers—that is, drivers aged above 25 who are relatively new to driving—are involved in crashes. However, this is difficult to verify because official statistics are not recorded for this particular demographic. This absence of data is particularly disappointing given that our predecessor Committee recommended in 2007 that the Department, in collaboration with the police, “should collect the data necessary to understand the scale and nature of the crash involvement of novice drivers, independently of young drivers”.
Paragraph Reference:
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Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Evidence from around the world suggests that the increased risks faced by young novice drivers are caused by a combination of young age and inexperience.1 1 Alfonsi, R., Anmari, A., & Usami, D. S. (2018). Lack of driving experience. European Road Safety Decision Support System, developed by the H2020 project SafetyCube. Retrieved January 15, 2019, from https://www.roadsafety- dss.eu/assets/data/pdf/synopses/Lack_of_driving_experience_032018.pdf Kinnear, N., Lloyd, L., Helman, S., Husband, P., Scoons, J., Jones, S., … Broughton, J. (2013). Novice drivers: Evidence Review and Evaluation. Department for Transport. Transport Research Laboratory. Retrieved January 15, 2019, from https://trl.co.uk/uploads/trl/documents/PPR673.pdf Pressley, A., Fernández-Medina, K., Helman, S., McKenna, F. P., Stradling, S., & Husband, P. (2017). A review of interventions which seek to increase the safety of young and novice drivers. Department for Transport. TRL and Department for Transport. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/609828/interventions-to-increase-young-and- novice-driver-safety.pdf Road Safety Observatory. (2012 (revised 2018)). Young Drivers Evidence Synthesis. Road Safety Observatory. Retrieved January 15, 2019, from http://www.roadsafetyobservatory.com/Review/10043 There is some evidence that driver inexperience is of greater importance, which means that older novice drivers are still more risky than those who are more experienced in terms of collision involvement. However, evidence also suggests that teenage drivers have consistently higher crash rates than drivers aged over 25, even after controlling for the length of time that the licence had been held for.2 Therefore, it is likely that older novice drivers (which we are assuming to be those aged over 25 years) are less riskier than younger novice drivers. Monitoring crash rates amongst novice drivers would help us to verify this, but to understand how risks and experience differ by age, we would need to monitor crash rates amongst both older and younger novice drivers. As reported road casualty data does not link to licence details, it is not possible to identify novice drivers from this data. In order to gather data on crash rates amongst older novice drivers and investigate how driver’s experience and age contribute to crashes, bespoke research would be required (likely surveys of a large sample of new drivers which is resource intensive). Given how the Department already know that it’s a combination of age and inexperience that contributes to collision risk amongst young drivers, and there is evidence to suggest older novice drivers are less risker than younger novice drivers, further work to monitor crash rates may not be the best use of limited resources. The Government will therefore consider the case for such research further and weigh up against other research priorities. It should also be noted that while all participants in Driver 2020 are younger (aged 17–24), we can use the data to understand the role of age, e.g., to understand if teenage novice drivers have higher crash rates post-test than those in their 20s.