Acclaim Driving Blog

Driving age rising to '18'

Published: February 13th 2008

The driving age could effectively rise to 18 in a major overhaul of how young people are prepared for the road. Learners will still be granted their provisional licence from the age of 17, but will need a year to pass a beefed-up test.

It will mean that the minimum age at which a new driver could realistically go out on his or her own will be 18.

Road safety figures show that one in five new drivers between the ages of 17 to 19 are involved in road traffic accident within the first year of passing their driving test.

The new structure is to be unveiled by ministers in a consultation document to be published shortly. Candidates will have to master key skills of the current driving test – including parallel parking, reversing around a corner, and the turn in the road – before they are allowed to take a new practical L-test, which they must pass to secure their full licence. Each mastered key skill will be signed off by a qualified driving instructor in the learners log book.

This will leave the examiner in the driving test to concentrate on more ‘safety-critical’ issues, such as dealing with junctions, roundabouts and moving traffic.

The test will be made harder than the current one, and will include elements such as driving on a dual carriageway, and turning right at busy junctions.

The learning process will also aim to give candidates experience of ‘real world’ driving on high speed roads and night driving.

Learner drivers will spend up to 500 hours mastering the key skills. Experts say that candidates currently spend 100 hours behind the wheel before taking their driving test. ‘It will take most people at least a year to be signed off by a qualified driving instructor on all the skills they need to master before taking the tougher test. A few drivers may complete these skills in less than a year. But they will be the exception rather than the rule. The restructuring of the driving test system will apply to all two million candidates a year across all age levels.

The consultation will look at whether to insist on a given number of compulsory lessons with a qualified instructor. Affordability will be a key issue. with those from poorer backgrounds currently relying on free tuition from family and friends.

Road crashes are the biggest killer of those aged 15 to 24, with 23 young drivers and passengers killed or seriously injured every day.

Every day 140 pass their driving test with less than six months driving experience, this makes young drivers so vulnerable. Helping them gain experience of driving in different road conditions, such as at night and on wet roads, will make them safer drivers, and reduce the tragic waste of young lives on our roads.

According to the ABI, male drivers aged 17-20 are 10 times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as more experienced motorists. Half of serious accidents involving young drivers occur at night.