The driving age is set to rise

The driving age could be potential be raised to 18 as part of a major overall, if the way driving licenses are granted. Since last year there has been a lot of talks about the raising the age to 18. The plan is that provisional licences will still be issued from the age of 17, but it will take a year to pass a much tougher practical test. This means that it would means the minimum age that a new driver could realistically drive on the roads without supervision would be 18.

The idea behind doing this is to cut the number of deaths caused on Britain’s roads by novice drivers. As a young driver at first I diasgreed with the idea, thinking why punish all young drivers just because of a few young stupid drivers. But then when I looked into the subject more I found that research by the Department for Transport (DfT) suggests that a 12-month learning period would save up to 1,000 deaths and serious injuries and up to 7,000 casualties a year.

1,000 deaths a year is a rediculous amount of young people dying and I don’t think by just rasing the age to 18 will make that much of an impact on young drivers. This isn’t such a small majority as we may first believe.

I also think that elderly drivers need to be taking into consideration though. Some older drivers didn’t even have to take a driving test, 50 years ago or more there were a lot less cars on the road. Older drivers are hazards on the roads they have a lot slower reaction speeds and failing eye sights and hearing, which worrys me more than young drivers.