IAM Proposes Post Test Training to Cut Road Crashes

Even though new figures show Britain's roads to be safest in the world, one road death is one death too much.

Rather than compulsory re-testing, and punitive punishments, the IAM has proposed driver training as the best way to ensure the future safery of all of us on the road.

Its proposals were presented to Road Safety Minister and Under Secretary of State for transport Mike Penning today.

The first stage would be compulsory post-test training of young drivers, a process already proven in Austria to have cut the fatality rate of 17-25 year old drivers by no less than 30%.

The IAM feels this would not be unpopular because, though compulsory, the training involves no testing and no question of taking a new driver off the road if they "failed".

In Austria, this is done in three stages: within the first  three months of passing the test, again within the first 4 - 8 months, and then again within the first 6 - 12 months.

The IAM is already taking an initiative of its own with the launch of 'Momentum' in the New Tear.

Momentum offers young drivers a low cost assessment by an IAM examiner early in their development that will help improve condidence, raise awareness and reduce risk on the road.

Later, this can be extended to re-train older drivers at stages throughout their lives, and is precisely what campaigner groups such as the Association of British Drivers has been proposing for years.

Speed camera are likely to remain where they obviously reduce the risk of crashes. But funding for so called 'Safety Camera Partnerships' is being withdrawn so these can no longer be see as a nice little earner fort the people who live off them.

More at www.iam.org.uk

(Photo copyright Paul Williams)