Young drivers should be banned from carrying passengers of a similar age for six months after passing their test and display plates with a ‘G’ for graduate, according to the AA.
Following calls by the grieving mother of an A-level student who died in a road crash with three young friends, the AA has backed graduated driving licensing for under-21s.
Hugo Morris, 18, who passed his test just six months earlier, was driving friends Harvey Owen, 17, Wilfred Fitchett, 17, and Jevon Hirst, 16, on a camping trip in north Wales last November when the accident happened.
An inquest last week heard how Hugo approached an ‘inadequately signed’ 90-degree corner too fast, under-steered and lost control in heavy rain. Although all were unhurt, they drowned after the car came to a rest upside down in a flooded ditch.
Harvey’s mother, Crystal, has been demanding a law change.
As part of their graduated licensing proposals, the AA also wants under-21s to be handed six penalty points for not wearing a seatbelt in the first six months after passing their test. It estimates that graduated licensing – already in use in the US, Canada, Australia and Sweden – would save at least 58 lives and prevent 934 people being seriously injured in crashes each year.
AA chief executive Jakob Pfaudler said: ‘Graduated driver licensing has been proven in other countries to significantly reduce road deaths and serious injuries.
‘We are calling on the Transport Secretary to make simple, pragmatic changes to the licensing process so young people are better protected in their first few months of independent driving.’
Harvey’s mother told the Daily Mail she was ‘happy’ the AA was supporting graduated licensing, adding: ‘If these deaths were occurring in such high numbers by knife crime or murder, there would be an outcry, but sadly road deaths seem to be accepted.’
In 2019, the Department for Transport (DfT) said it was considering introducing graduated licensing in England. This was later dropped, partly because of the potential impact on young people’s employment.
Following last week’s inquest, senior coroner for north-west Wales, Kate Robertson, raised concerns about young drivers carrying passengers.
A DfT spokesman said: ‘While we are not considering graduated driving licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads, and we are considering other measures to tackle this problem and protect young drivers.’
