It’s scary being a parent of a young driver.
The statistics speak for themselves; drivers aged 17-19 only make up 1.5% of UK licence holders but are involved in 9% of fatal and serious crashes. According to Brake, one in four 18-24-year-olds (23%) crash within two years of passing their driving test.
Why are young drivers vulnerable on the road?
We all know that it takes time to get comfortable behind the wheel. Lack of experience is one of the main reasons why young drivers are dangerous on the road. Inexperience means less ability to analyse potential hazards and be prepared.
Young people are known to be over-confident when it comes to many things, so they’re particularly likely to take risks when driving. This results in speeding, overtaking blindly and not wearing seatbelts among other risky behaviours.
What would help make the roads safer for young drivers?
Young driver safety is talked about a lot. There are multiple initiatives built to battle the issue of young drivers having serious or fatal road accidents.
The driving test changed in 2018 to better accommodate the gaps in young driver learning. The Government initiative Think! is focused on delivering road safety campaigns and educating young people about driving hazards. The latest government proposal goes as far as banning new drivers from driving at night – at insurethebox we find initiatives like this demotivating and harmful to learning, which is why we have a strong focus on educating our drivers.
Parents also play a big role in young driver safety from supporting their children’s learning to helping them choose their first car and insurance policy.
Young driver car insurance and road safety
Educating young drivers about the dangers of their behaviour on the road is vital and technology provides personalised ways of doing so.
LexisNexis analysed road accidents of 17-19-year-old-drivers; the research shows a correlation between the increased number of telematics-based insurance policies and a 35% reduction in road casualties. According to LexisNexis, 4 in 5 young drivers are estimated to have a telematics policy today.
drive like a girl is an advocate for road safety – our mission is to make the roads safer for everyone.
We use the latest telematics technology to give young drivers a fair price – if they drive safely. The black box fitted to the customer’s car allows us to provide tools that help young drivers improve their driving.
With a personalised portal our drivers can track different elements of their driving to make sure they’re safe on the road, and sharing portal access with a parent often supports that learning. From speeding alerts and safety campaigns to rewarding safe driving by incentives, we give full support to young drivers to become safer drivers.