Latest news with #driving licence
Sky News
12-08-2025
- Automotive
- Sky News
What does the data tell us about road traffic accidents in the UK?
Under "tougher" plans to tackle road deaths and injuries in England and Wales, the government has announced measures to make over-70s take compulsory eye tests every three years or lose their driving licence. But are they really needed? Motorists over the age of 70 already self-report their medical fitness to drive every three years, and British roads are safer now than they've ever been. In 2023, the latest year for which the Department for Transport has published data, the casualty rate on British roads fell to 398 per billion vehicle miles. It's the first time that figure has been under 400, and has halved since just 2006. In 1960, the casualty rate was 10 times higher than it is now. The total number of people killed on the UK's roads also reached a record low in 2023, other than the COVID-affected years of 2020 and 2021. There were 1,624 people killed in total, just under half of which were in cars. This figure has plateaued somewhat since 2010, however, after rapid improvements between 2006 and 2010. There was a similar plateau between 1994 and 2006 before the last significant piece of road safety legislation was introduced. The 2006 Road Safety Act introduced higher fines and more points for the most severe speeding offences, as well as vastly expanding the use of speed awareness courses. It was also the first year that people could get points on their licence for using their phone. In the four years that followed, there was a 40% decrease in deaths among road users. In the 13 years since then, it's fallen just 12%. There had been a slight rise in deaths among older drivers for a few years between 2014 and 2019, but that has started to fall again now. There are now fewer deaths among over-70s compared with either the under-30s, people aged 30-49, or those between 50 and 69. In 2019, there were a similar number of deaths among people of each of these age cohorts. Academic studies have previously found that older people are also more likely to develop symptoms of depression, be admitted to care facilities, and even have a higher mortality rate, once they stop driving. The academics found that those links remained even after adjusting for other factors like baseline health and cognitive ability. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: "It is certainly good for our eye health as we age to have a regular eye test - every two years the NHS advises - but this doesn't automatically mean that a compulsory eye test at age 70 is appropriate. People can develop eye problems at any age so why confine such an approach only to those aged 70 and not to younger drivers too? "From the data we have seen, there is no reason to suppose that eye problems lie behind a significant proportion of accidents. While there may be a case for introducing a regular mandatory eye test for drivers of all ages, it is not clear that this would have a big impact on the numbers of serious accidents involving older drivers." Are younger drivers a danger to themselves? Edmund King, president of the Automobile Association, said that the government's strategy is "much overdue", while pointing to the figures showing that the number of road deaths have plateaued since 2010. He said that making vision checks compulsory for older drivers was a "practical step that can make a real difference", but added that failing to introduce a six-month limit on new drivers transporting passengers of a similar age is "a major oversight". A limit like this has been active in parts of Australia since 2007. Research by road safety charity Brake says that, in the UK, around one in five drivers crash within a year of passing their test. The Department for Transport data also shows that younger people are also significantly more likely to die as passengers compared to people in other age groups. There has also been a suggestion that younger drivers are more likely to die as a result of not wearing seatbelts. More than a third of 17-29-year-olds who die on the roads didn't have their seatbelts on. But the same is true of 30-59 year olds. There is a significant difference between men and women however - 31% of men who died did so without wearing a seatbelt, compared with just 11% of women. That also means that 89% of women who died on the roads did so despite wearing a seatbelt, perhaps adding to evidence that suggests that seatbelts offer better protection to adult men. Drink-driving Since 2014, Scotland has had a lower drink-drive limit than the rest of the UK. The government's new proposals would reduce the drink-drive limit in England and Wales to the same level as in Scotland - 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, instead of the current level of 80mg of alcohol. For an average-sized man, that means they would be over the limit after one pint of beer, instead of after two. In diverging from the other nations in the UK, the new standards in Scotland aligned with most of Europe. It seems to have had some impact. The number of collisions involving drink drivers has fallen by more than 40% in Scotland since it was introduced, compared with 20% in England over the same time period, and 38% in Wales. The improvement is less pronounced when it comes to the most serious drink-driving road accidents, though. They are down just 7% since 2014. Where are the safest, and most dangerous, places to drive? The Isle of Wight has the highest current fatality rate, after accounting for how much driving people do. There were 18 deaths per billion vehicle miles on the island in 2023. Next was Blackpool, with 16. The central London boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Lambeth were the only other local authorities with a rate higher than 10. At the other end of the scale, Stockport (Greater Manchester), Thurrock (Essex) and Nottingham each had fewer than one death per billion vehicle miles. When it comes to accidents that included not just deaths but also serious injuries, London has the worst record. Drivers in Westminster were most likely to end up in a serious collision, but the nine most dangerous local authorities in Great Britain were all London boroughs. Bradford completed the bottom 10. Bath and North East Somerset was the safest area, although three Welsh areas - Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Cardiff - joined South Gloucestershire in the top five. Scottish drivers were among the most likely to avoid being in crashes altogether. Eight of the 10 local authorities with the lowest overall collision rate were north of the border, although Rutland in the East Midlands had the lowest overall rate. The top 20 areas with the most collisions per mile driven were all in London. How does driving in the UK compare with other countries? The UK is one of the safest places to drive in Europe. Only Norway and Sweden had a lower rate of road deaths per head of population in 2023 than the UK's 25 deaths per million people. The figures in places like Italy, Greece and Portugal were more than twice as high. There aren't any directly comparable figures for 2023 for the US, but in 2022 their death rate from driving was five times as high as the UK, and 50% higher than the worst performing European country - Bulgaria. The Data and Forensics
Sky News
11-08-2025
- Automotive
- Sky News
What does the data tell us about road traffic accidents?
Under "tougher" plans to tackle road deaths and injuries in England and Wales, the government has announced measures to make over-70s take compulsory eye tests every three years or lose their licence. But are they really needed? Drivers over the age of 70 already self-report their medical fitness to drive every three years, and British roads are safer now than they've ever been. In 2023, the latest year for which the Department for Transport has published data, the casualty rate on British roads fell to 398 per billion vehicle miles. It's the first time that figure has been under 400, and has halved since just 2006. In 1960, the casualty rate was 10 times higher than it is now. The total number of people killed on the UK's roads also reached a record low in 2023, other than the COVID-affected years of 2020 and 2021. There were 1,624 people killed in total, just under half of which were in cars. This figure has plateaued somewhat since 2010, however, after rapid improvements between 2006 and 2010. There was a similar plateau between 1994 and 2006 before the last significant piece of road safety legislation was introduced. The 2006 Road Safety Act introduced higher fines and more points for the most severe speeding offences, as well as greatly expanding the use of speed awareness courses. It was also the first year people could get points on their licence for using their phone. In the four years that followed, there was a 40% decrease in deaths among road users. In the 13 years since then, it's fallen just 12%. There had been a slight rise in deaths among older drivers for a few years between 2014 and 2019, but that has started to fall again now. There are now fewer deaths among over-70s compared with either the under-30s, people aged 30-49, or those between 50 and 69. In 2019, there were a similar number of deaths among people of each of these age cohorts. Academic studies have previously found that older people are also more likely to develop symptoms of depression, be admitted to care facilities, and even have a higher mortality rate, once they stop driving. The academics found that those links remained even after adjusting for other factors like baseline health and cognitive ability. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: "It is certainly good for our eye health as we age to have a regular eye test - every two years the NHS advises - but this doesn't automatically mean that a compulsory eye test at age 70 is appropriate. People can develop eye problems at any age so why confine such an approach only to those aged 70 and not to younger drivers too? "From the data we have seen, there is no reason to suppose that eye problems lie behind a significant proportion of accidents. While there may be a case for introducing a regular mandatory eye test for drivers of all ages, it is not clear that this would have a big impact on the numbers of serious accidents involving older drivers." Are younger drivers a danger to themselves? Edmund King, president of the Automobile Association, said that the government's strategy is "much overdue", while pointing to the figures showing that the number of road deaths have plateaued since 2010. He said that making vision checks compulsory for older drivers was a "practical step that can make a real difference", but added that failing to introduce a six-month limit on new drivers transporting passengers of a similar age is "a major oversight". A limit like this has been active in parts of Australia since 2007. Research by road safety charity Brake says that, in the UK, around one in five drivers crash within a year of passing their test. The Department for Transport data also shows that younger people are also significantly more likely to die as passengers compared to people in other age groups. There has also been a suggestion that younger drivers are more likely to die as a result of not wearing seatbelts. More than a third of 17-29-year-olds who die on the roads didn't have their seatbelts on. But the same is true of 30-59 year olds. There is a significant difference between men and women however - 31% of men who died did so without wearing a seatbelt, compared with just 11% of women. That also means that 89% of women who died on the roads did so despite wearing a seatbelt, perhaps adding to evidence that suggests that seatbelts offer better protection to adult men. Drink driving Since 2014, Scotland has had a lower drink drive limit than the rest of the UK. The government's new proposals would reduce the drink-drive limit in England and Wales to the same level as in Scotland - 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, instead of the current level of 80mg of alcohol. For an average-sized man, that means they would be over the limit after one pint of beer, instead of after two. In diverging from the other nations in the UK, the new standards in Scotland aligned with most of Europe. It seems to have had some impact. The number of collisions involving drink drivers has fallen by more than 40% in Scotland since it was introduced, compared with 20% in England over the same time period, and 38% in Wales. The improvement is less pronounced when it comes to the most serious drink-driving road accidents, though. They are down just 7% since 2014. Where are the safest, and most dangerous, places to drive? The Isle of Wight has the highest current fatality rate, after accounting for how much driving people do. There were 18 deaths per billion vehicle miles on the island in 2023. Next was Blackpool, with 16. The central London boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Lambeth were the only other local authorities with a rate higher than 10. At the other end of the scale, Stockport (Greater Manchester), Thurrock (Essex) and Nottingham each had fewer than one death per billion vehicle miles. When it comes to accidents that included not just deaths but also serious injuries, London has the worst record. Drivers in Westminster were most likely to end up in a serious collision, but the nine most dangerous local authorities in Great Britain were all London boroughs. Bradford completed the bottom 10. Bath and North East Somerset was the safest area, although three Welsh areas - Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Cardiff - joined South Gloucestershire in the top five. Scottish drivers were among the most likely to avoid being in crashes altogether. Eight of the 10 local authorities with the lowest overall collision rate were north of the border, although Rutland in the East Midlands had the lowest overall rate. The top 20 areas with the most collisions per mile driven were all in London. How does driving in the UK compare with other countries? The UK is one of the safest places to drive in Europe. Only Norway and Sweden had a lower rate of road deaths per head of population in 2023 than the UK's 25 deaths per million people. The figures in places like Italy, Greece and Portugal were more than twice as high. There aren't any directly comparable figures for 2023 for the US, but in 2022 their death rate from driving was five times as high as the UK, and 50% higher than the worst performing European country - Bulgaria. The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
The Guardian
11-08-2025
- Automotive
- The Guardian
‘Basic common sense': readers respond to plan for mandatory eye tests for UK drivers over 70
Proposals, expected to be published as part of a road safety strategy in the autumn, could introduce a new requirement for over-70s to take an eye test every three years when they renew their driving licence. It is one of a number of measures proposed amid concern about the number of people being killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads. Last year, 1,633 people were killed and almost 28,000 seriously injured in traffic incidents. Here, readers share their views on the planned mandatory eye tests. I totally agree with this proposed development as safety on the roads is paramount. We need to address avoidable risks. I now need glasses, which do give me a good quality of sight, but I would be grateful for reassurance that my sight is consistently good enough to drive. I would also approve of more rigorous tests for older drivers like myself. I find night time driving on non-motorway roads more difficult than I did, and I am more likely to feel tired driving earlier in a journey than I did when I was younger. As older drivers, we should be prepared to demonstrate that we can drive safely on busy roads. I would hate myself if I caused an accident when I was later shown to be unfit physically or mentally to drive. I am responsible to all road users, including any passengers in my car. So definitely a thumbs-up to this move. Charlie, 70, retired, Penrith, Cumbria I think it is a good idea. Last year I went for an eye test. I was immediately referred for cataract operations in both eyes. After the operations, I realised how bad my eyesight had been. I don't think I should have been driving. Cliff, 83, West Sussex I think an eye test is a good idea. I've been a safe driver since the age of 16. I have my eyes tested every two years. My issue is the young drivers who speed. It seems backwards to assume older drivers are the problem when, statistically, isn't it the younger drivers causing the deaths? Dotty, 76, retired, Norfolk Regular eye tests for drivers are a good idea, but starting at any specific age is arbitrary. Younger people can also develop eyesight problems. I myself started to need glasses in my 30s. Had I ignored the problem, I would have been as much of a danger then as I would be if I didn't have regular eye tests now. Jeff, 70, retired software developer, Wokingham, Berkshire I'm amazed it's not already a requirement. Gradual eyesight loss is not always noticed, and when noticed, older car-dependent people do not always act on it. It would be a less unpopular requirement if accompanied by affordable public transport options, for example, easy-to-access mini buses that pick up and drop off at people's doors. Jill, 70, Bracknell, Berkshire Absolutely a must. My mother (over-90 now and still alive) has macular degeneration (both wet and dry), which affected her sight years ago. She continued to drive in spite of her family's pleas. I understood why: she was the sole carer of an Alzheimer's patient. But it was still dangerous for everyone. A compulsory eye test would have removed the acrimony that arose from family members telling her she needed to relinquish her driving licence. Anonymous As set out, this is ageism. I totally agree that there should be compulsory eye tests for drivers, but it should be a requirement for all drivers. Eyesight can fail at any age. Also, this is the stick, where is the carrot? Where is the better public transport to allow those who lose the ability to drive to get around, or are we planning to trap them in their homes? Steve, 62, Surrey This is basic common sense. Along with eye tests, there ought to be hazard perception tests and reaction speed tests. I realise that for many elderly people, driving is one of the last independent things they can do, but really, who wouldn't want to be safe on the roads? It's selfish to think otherwise. Anonymous As someone about to turn 61 next month, I fully support the initiative of mandatory eye testing for the over 70s, but I think a further shake-up of road safety should also be considered. First of all, why just leave it at over 70s? As we have to renew our licenses every 10 years, it should be a part of the renewal process and should include an online test to pick up changes within the Highway Code. In 2022, there were significant changes, and yet most motoring surveys showed that the majority of drivers were unaware or were even going to make themselves aware. Paul, 60, Lincoln
The Guardian
11-08-2025
- Automotive
- The Guardian
Tell us: how do you feel about plans to introduce mandatory eye tests for older drivers in the UK?
Older drivers could face mandatory eye tests and the drink-drive limit could be cut as the government tries to reduce the number of road deaths. The proposals, expected to be published as part of a road safety strategy in the autumn, could introduce a new requirement for over-70s to take an eye test every three years when they renew their driving licence. The expected changes come amid concern about the number of people being killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads. Last year, 1,633 people were killed and almost 28,000 seriously injured in traffic incidents. We'd like to hear from older drivers about how they feel about taking a mandatory eye test to keep their licence. You can share your view about plans to introduce compulsory eye tests to keep their driving licence over the age of 70 in the form below or by messaging us. Please include as much detail as possible. Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you include other people's names please ask them first. Contact us on WhatsApp at +447766780300. For more information, please see our guidance on contacting us via WhatsApp. For true anonymity please use our SecureDrop service instead. If you're having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.
South China Morning Post
11-08-2025
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
Stricter health checks for Hong Kong taxi drivers should just be a start
A proposal in Hong Kong to require commercial vehicle drivers aged 65 and above to pass a fitness test before their driving licences can be renewed was first raised in the Legislative Council back in May 2023. Little was heard about it since – until now. After last week's horrific car crash involving an octogenarian taxi driver, the transport secretary finally announced a follow-up: the proposal would be introduced in Legco by the first quarter of next year. Why did it take a high-profile accident to get things moving? The government favours high-level planning, and technology and efficiency are high on its agenda. It unveiled a blueprint on the city's future transport infrastructure development in December 2023, and is working to finalise a transport strategy blueprint this year that incorporates various smart mobility initiatives. But what the government has neglected in all this talk about technology is the human factor. Technology can help make transport more efficient and even safer, but safety can still be put at risk when the human behind the wheel feels dizzy and loses control, as happened in the case of the tragic accident last week. The government is feeling the heat from lawmakers and the community to impose stricter rules for cab drivers. Under current regulations, only those aged 70 and older are required to submit fitness certification, and their driving licences can be renewed for up to three years. The government wants to lower the age threshold to 65 and shorten the licence period to a year instead of three. The taxi industry was quick to object. The chairman of the Hong Kong Taxi Owners' Association, Wong Po-keung, who is 80 years old and himself a taxi driver, said he preferred the status quo. He believed older drivers were being targeted unfairly.
