Have a look up of the Australian driving test. You do it in stages over 4 years and there's a zero tolerance on alcohol. I have just been talking to a lady who lives there and she said it really has dropped the number of young drivers who are in accidents or drive recklessly.

Well its 18 in most countries so us putting it at 25 would look very knee-jerk, unjustified and would reinforce a very poor message. If the rest of the world can get on with it and we decide not to that'd make us look quite stupid. Its 17 here and our roads are some of, if not the safest in Europe. Some perspective is needed. Theres no guarantee someone getting in a car for the first time and learning at 25 is going to be any better than someone doing the same at 18. If anything it'll move inexperience into older drivers, the economic cost would be substantial with insurance companies re-calibrating premiums, a massive gap in the economy for 8 years as it 'catches up' it'd seriously harm job prospects and economic growth and further lock in the problem of unemployment in anything approaching an isolated area.

What if we were to do that, after the entire economy has collapsed and it does nothing to improve road safety? What do we do then? Change it to 30? 35? 40? A lack of experience is a lack of experience regardless of age. A newly qualified driver with one week experience at 25 is no less likely to crash than a newly qualified 17 year old.

Seeing as most people pass at 18/19ish its difficult to get enough examples of 25 year olds passing to give a good idea even if i did have stats.

You say a 25 year old will be more mature, ok then by that logic why 25? Why not 30? Surely they'll be even more mature and even less likely to crash. What about 55? Surely there'll be no chance of crashes. If thats the logic you want to follow then why pluck 25 out of the air? Why not 30 or 35 or 40 etc surely if the older they are the less chances of crashing then why 25?

Or, should we recognise that the sooner people get their mishaps due to inexperience done and out of the way the better? Instead of just stalling it (no pun intended).

The only way to guarantee no crashes is to ban everybody from driving theres no guarantees. What i do know is we can learn at 17 which is one of the lowest ages for doing so in the World and we have some of the safest roads, so those stats would appear to back me up.

There are no guarantees of anything. This scaremongering of 'young drivers are a menace' often gets dealt a blow with stories like the one this week of a 46 year old woman, drunk 4 times over the limit who drove the wrong way down a motorway for 25 miles. Statistically she's the lowest risk on the insurance book but theres always people who will throw a spanner in the works. Its a shame the thousands, the vast majority of young drivers who do well and good and drive sensibly dont get the same amount of press coverage.

Edited by jamie745 on 09/09/2011 at 23:41