Too many children are dying because of show-off teen drivers – but I've got a simple solution that will save lives

The Sun

29-04-2025

THE rollercoaster years of parenting are long, circuitous and, at times, bumpy.
When they're babies, we worry about choking hazards or illness symptoms they can't tell us about.
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As toddlers, it's the dangers of stairs, sockets, boiling water etc.
And when they start secondary school and become more independent, there's the worry of them gradually moving away from us and entering an online world where all manner of harms can befall them.
By the time they reach their late teens, you breathe a sigh of relief, right?
Wrong. Because now you embark upon the driving years when, chances are, they're either driving themselves or start getting lifts with friends who've not long passed their test.
Just ask the parents of Harry Purcell, 17, and Matilda Seccombe and Frank Wormald, both 16, who all attended Chipping Campden school in the Cotswolds.
After final bell, they accepted a lift home with 17-year-old Edward Spencer and paid for that decision with their lives.
A known 'show off' behind the wheel, he had only passed his test six weeks earlier and, in 'an act of pure folly' according to the judge, he hit the verge of a rural B road at 64mph, lost control of his Ford Fiesta and hit an oncoming car on the other side of the road.
His own three passengers all died from head injuries, leaving their families 'broken' and 'utterly devastated' at their needless loss, and the driver and two children in the other car were left with life-changing injuries.
Spencer, now 19 and from Newbold-on-Stour, Warwickshire, admitted three counts of causing death by careless driving and three counts of causing serious injury by careless driving.
He has been detained at a young offender institution for two years after the judge described the crash as a 'lethal combination' of his excessive speed with a failure to assess the road conditions.
He added there was a 'terrible inevitability' about it.
Naturally, the parents of those killed have now called for 'graduated' driving licences to be introduced that would prevent young drivers from carrying passengers for a certain period of time after their test to allow them to 'gain experience without that peer pressure of having friends in the car'.
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That sounds like a workable plan to me, particularly since the Department of Transport says that in one year (2023) one fifth of all those killed or seriously injured in car collisions involved a young driver who was aged between 17 to 24.
In the meantime, all we can do as parents is talk to our children about the potential danger of getting into a car driven by a mate prone to showing off.
And pray that, for once, they actually listen to us.
UNIVERSITY vice-chancellors say they will increase the number of lower entry grade offers to disadvantaged students such as those who attended a low-attaining school.
Critics say this will lower standards and question whether the students will be able to keep pace with the work level required.
Surely, the strategy should be to improve the substandard schools they attended so they don't need lower offers.
BAKERY WASTE LUNACY
REMEMBER the film Falling Down, where Michael Douglas loses it when faced with the world's frustrations and pettiness?
That was very nearly me in the King's Cross station branch of Gail's Bakery on Saturday afternoon.
Taking my place in the queue, I had my eye on a chicken and tarragon pie on display and hoped no one in front of me would nab it first.
They didn't, but as I reached the till and placed my order, another member of staff swooped and took it.
'I'd like to buy that please,' I said, pointing at the pie as it was placed in plain sight on the counter behind the till.
She replied: 'We can't sell it to you, I'm afraid. It's been removed because it's out of date.'
'But it was literally deemed to be in date just ten seconds ago,' I mitigated.
My plea fell on deaf ears, the dreaded words 'company policy' were deployed and I left with nothing.
Last month, The Sun revealed that, because it doesn't use fridges, Gail's – which has around 130 outlets – chucks out bin bags of expensive food every couple of hours.
A young woman who worked there for a year said: 'I challenged my manager, saying we should at least give them to the homeless but we're not allowed to in case they sue us for food poisoning. It's ridiculous.'
It is indeed. And refusing to sell something that was on sale just a few seconds earlier is borderline lunacy.
Roll on knight time for Becks and Rog
DAVID BECKHAM will be 50 on Friday.
Time, surely, for the sword of Damocles (dangling precariously above his head since he called the honours committee a rude word in a leaked email) to be replaced by the delicate touch of the knighting sword on each shoulder?
Not only did he captain England for six years, but he's a tireless advocate for children's rights, started his own UNICEF fund and remains a great ambassador for this country on the world stage.
'Arise Sir David' is long overdue.
And if the King himself is reading this (which he almost certainly will be) can we please have a two-for-one deal and get 'Sir Roger Daltrey' too?
TOUGH GUY IS NO ACT
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THE injuries sustained by movie star Jeremy Renner when he was run over by his own snow plough suggest it's a miracle he survived.
Six ribs broken in 14 places, left leg, ankle, toes and hand all broken, lung collapsed, liver pierced, eye socket, jaw and mandible all broken. The list goes on.
After the expert work of various surgeons and two years of physio, he returned to the set of Mayor of Kingstown last year to make season three.
The former Hurt Locker and S.W.A.T star plays tough guys on screen, but it sounds like he's pretty indestructible off it too.
GO FOR BROKE
A YOUTH employment adviser reckons that many of Gen Z won't work for anything less than £40,000.
Based in Blackpool, Graham Cowley works with NEETs (not in education, employment or training) and says 'there's something going on in the minds of these young people'.
Idleness and delusional entitlement would be my guess.
He adds: 'I believe if we were able to get to them earlier and imbue them with a sense of, 'you need to put a shift in to get what you want in life,' then I think there's a real value in doing that.'
Alternatively, just cut off their revenue source – be it benefits or the bank of mum and dad.
Without the funds to pay for their gaming or streaming subscriptions, they'll soon be looking for paid employment.
AGAINST the late Queen's wishes, Meghan Markle is still using her HRH title despite no longer being a working royal.
'With the compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex' says the printed card on a gift basket she sent to a friend.
Is she the modern-day Hyacinth Bucket?