DAVID STEWART: Movement at last in bid to improve driver safety?

During my 14 years of service as an MSP campaigning to improve the safety of young drivers became a passion, or perhaps an obsession.

It followed the tragic deaths of two young teenagers just off Island Bank Road, Inverness, when their car crashed into a wall.

The parents of one victim urged me to champion improving road safety by improving the driving skills of young drivers.

My office staff were first class and organised research analysis from road safety groups, meetings with the police, the RAC and AA, and lodged parliamentary questions. The result was a major campaign to create a Graduated Driving Licence (GDL) scheme in the UK. What does that mean? GDL schemes run in Australia, New Zealand and America. They are designed to provide young drivers with more experience before they have a full, unrestricted licence. The analogy can be made with pilots who gain experience at various levels before carrying out more complex, demanding tasks such as transatlantic flights.

Driving licence conditions are reserved to Westminster, so I met the then UK transport minister on two occasions to urge the government to introduce a GDL scheme. In the Scottish Parliament, I led a Members’ Debate on improving young drivers’ safety. The Scottish Government supported the principle. By the time of my retirement in 2021 there was widespread support from campaign groups, but no concrete actions from the UK government.

So I was pleased to read this week that the now UK transport minister, Richard Holden, will consider a slimmed down scheme when he meets with road safety campaigners this month. One item on the agenda is for new drivers under 25 facing a ban from carrying other young passengers. This proposal has been approved by Support for Victims of Road Crashes, on the Advisory Committee to the Department for Transport. Road safety charity Brake said new drivers who carry young passengers were four times more likely to die at the wheel than if they were sole passengers, as there could be an element of them “showing off”.

The statistics are depressing. One in five drivers crash within a year of gaining their licence while over 1500 young drivers are killed or seriously injured in the UK each year. Brake highlights other risk factors, such as late night driving, speeding, drink and drug driving and mobile phone use.

GDL schemes in other countries can reduce exposure to such risk factors for young drivers, for example, by limiting night driving.

My own view is we need to encourage young people to learn to drive for leisure and work, but we need that experience to be more safety focussed. Surely if GDL schemes can save one young life in the Highlands, they are worth introducing?

n CONGRATULATIONS to Caley Thistle manager Billy Dodds and the team for their first class win over Falkirk in the Scottish Cup Semi-Final at Hampden. I am raring to go for the final against Celtic on June 3. Will it be a case of Super Caley Go Ballistic…?

n IT was very touching to read the reactions in the press of the passing of my good friend Bill McAllister. I was out for lunch with Bill just a few weeks ago. He was in great form as usual with a wicked sense of humour. Bill was a leading figure in the local Labour Party and a legend in journalism. The Highlands are a poorer place with his passing.

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