Latest news with #graduatedLicences
BBC News
4 days ago
- BBC News
Henley-in-Arden parents call for strict rules on new drivers
The parents of a teenager who died in a car crash have said meeting MPs to call for stricter rules for young and newly qualified drivers has given them fresh Suffield, 18, was a passenger in a friend's speeding and overloaded car which lost control and crashed head-on into a bus in 1986, killing five parents, Robbin and Patsy Suffield, from Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, have been campaigning for graduated driving licences ever since."We've been banging our drum about this for a very long time and now with this latest campaign, I think 'yes finally'," Mrs Suffield said. The couple said the prospect of getting a change in the law did look possible at one point."We did get somewhere as four years after he died a bill went into parliament to restrict the size of the car of that a newly qualified driver could drive."It failed on the second reading but we've stayed campaigning ever since," Mr Suffield of his son's death, he added: "They drove down a country lane when they approached a hump bridge and with the inexperience of the driver, the overladen car, and excessive speed, the driver lost control and went head-on into a bus," he said."Out of the six in the car, five were killed, and one was seriously injured."The pair were among a group of bereaved families who met MPs on Thursday to advance the case for graduated driver want to extend the learner driver period, ban new drivers aged 17-19 from carrying passengers for six months and make motorway and rural road experience mandatory during lessons.A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: "Whilst we are not considering Graduated Driving Licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads."We are already taking action to tackle this, including through our THINK! campaign, which has a focus on men aged 17-24 as they are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than other drivers." Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
5 days ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
Broadstairs mum meeting MPs over graduated driver campaign
The mother of a teenager who died in a crash in Kent is meeting MPs to promote a campaign which would see young new drivers become subject to stricter Entwistle, from Broadstairs, lost her son Ethan two days before his 19th birthday when the car he was a passenger in crashed into a Entwistle is among a group of bereaved families who will meet MPs on Thursday to advance the case for graduated driver want to extend the learner driver period, ban new drivers aged 17-19 from carrying "peer-aged" passengers for six months and make motorway and rural road experience mandatory during lessons. Ms Entwistle said: "We hope that all the MPs we speak to will back us."She said that the campaign petition, which had just over 103,000 signatures when first brought to Parliament in April, now has nearly 108,000 supporters. "Our main hope is they [MPs] actually formalise and put graduated driving licences in place," Ms Entwistle said, adding: "I won't stop pushing until something changes."According to national road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, a fifth of all collisions in 2023 involved a young driver."Statistics also show that young male drivers are proportionately most likely to have an accident in between the age of 16 and 24," said spokesperson Harriet Hernando.A campaign by Ms Entwistle and other local residents saw Kent County Council introduce extra speed restriction measures around the site where Ethan crashed on Dumpton Park efforts have been made to get a community speedwatch group up and running. This went live in March, meaning there is now a police-issued speed monitoring device near the driver of the car Ethan was a passenger in admitted to causing death by dangerous driving on Tuesday. The Department for Transport said it recognised the increased risks faced by young people on the roads but it was "not considering graduated driving licences".
