An Oxfordshire campaign group is backing calls to introduce Graduated Driving Licences and black boxes for young drivers to help improve road safety.
The Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel is supporting the introduction of measures that would restrict new and young drivers from driving at night and carrying passengers under a certain age.
The push comes after three teenage passengers died in the early hours of June 20 last year when a BMW crashed into a tree in Frilford Road near Abingdon.
The driver who was aged 19 at the time of the incident was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court to nine years and four months.
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Robin Tucker, co-chair of CoHSAT, told the Oxford Mail: “At CoHSAT, we support the introduction of Graduated Driving Licences for young drivers, and other measures to reduce the death toll on our roads.
He explained that graduated licences were previously set to be examined under Theresa May’s government’s road safety action plan in 2019
However, the plans were shelved following May’s departure from office and the onset of Covid. The Government is now in the early stages of developing a new Road Safety Strategy, under Lilian Greenwood MP.
The need for more measures follows recent Government statistics from 2023 which found that a quarter of fatalities from collisions involving a car driver involve at least one young driver.
In total, 4,959 people were killed or seriously injured last year as a result of collisions involving young drivers, according to reports.
Graduated Driving Licences typically restrict new and young drivers from driving at night and carrying passengers under a certain age, as these factors are known to significantly increase crash risks.
The system could include several key restrictions, including a minimum learning period before taking the practical test.
Other potential measures include limits on passenger numbers, driving curfews during late hours, and lower drink-drive limits for new drivers.
Black boxes and speed limiters, similar to those used in commercial vehicle fleets, could also be implemented, the RAC has suggested.
The system has already proven successful in several countries. In Australia, new drivers face restrictions on night driving and passenger numbers, while Ireland requires novice drivers to display N plates for two years and follow stricter drink-drive limits.
Tucker added: “We understand that people don’t like being monitored or restricted, but the number of injuries and deaths from crashes such as these is vast, and people would find it unacceptable that five people were being killed every day, in our country, in any other field of human activity.”
The call for more restrictions also follows a petition started by Crystal Owen in October which called for similar measures, following the death of her 17-year-old son Harvey Owen and three friends in a crash.
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The petition, which has gathered over 22,000 signatures, proposes a minimum six-month learning period and restrictions on carrying passengers aged under 25 for the first six months after passing.
These measures could prevent approximately 537 deaths and serious injuries each year involving 17-19 year old drivers, it detailed.
