Are we passing young drivers for a car licence too quickly in the UK

I am amazed of how many young drivers I see that flaunt the law and have total disrespect when driving a car.

Admittedly there are bad and good drivers in every age group , however I have been watching so many of late that can never follow speed limits, and are driving totally out of control.

At traffic lights all you see in your view mirror are them looking down into their lap checking texts or emails.

When they see a 30 mile an hour zone they still disregard the speed and travel at the speed that they want to never thinking about the consequences and the penalty they would pay if they cause an accident.

So why do we pass them and give them a licence so easily.

This made me wonder more and some of the statistics were frightening.

Young drivers within the age group between 17 and 24 years of age are at a much higher risk of crashing than older drivers. Drivers aged 17-19 only make up 1.5% of UK licence holders ], but are involved in 9% of fatal and serious crashes where they are the driver .

Quite a horrific statistic.

Drivers aged 16-19 are a third more likely to die in a crash than drivers aged 40-49
One in four 18-24 year olds (23%) crash within two years of passing their driving test .
Young male drivers are involved in many more crashes than young female drivers.

Apparently young people pick up the physical skills of driving more quickly and, as a result, feel they have mastered it and are often over-confident about their driving ability. However, while the practical skills of driving can be mastered quickly, some less obvious skills such as hazard perception require more experience.

This means young drivers may think they are in control when they are actually driving unsafely , and become more likely to take risks as they believe their skills are improving .

Research has found that young drivers who show overconfidence in self-assessment of their skills are more likely to crash in their first two years of driving than those who are insecure about their driving skills .

You can read read more on this at this link http://www.brake.org.uk/news/15-facts-a-resources/facts/488-young-drivers-the-hard-facts

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