By Dr Ian Greenwood, Campaigner
Imagine the worst thing that can probably ever happen to any parent – the ‘knock on the door’ with the bombshell news that your twelve-year old daughter has been traumatically killed and your six year old daughter and their Mum had been seriously injured, in a young driver crash. Actually, please do not imagine that as it is truly horrific. But, this happened to my family and I would not wish that on anyone else, and I try to make that a reality. In 2022, 4,935 people had that exact same ‘knock on the door’ with news of death or serious injury in young driver crashes. But, what made this living nightmare even harder to deal with was learning, over time, that a ‘treatment’ for the risk to young driver crashes had been invented in New Zealand in 1984, and that our politicians started to debate that in 1993. And in 2024 are still debating it.
Alice, my forever twelve year old, was killed in 2008 in a young driver crash – the car in which she was travelling in was hit by an eighteen year old driver and his sixteen year old passenger coming in the opposite direction. They managed to kill themselves too. So, had our politicians translated discourse into policy action, and not come up with reason after reason why a Graduated Driving Licensing system was not proven, was unfair, and the freedom of young drivers was paramount, who knows how many lives could have been saved since 1993. One MP told me to my face (on Teams), after I shared my family’s tragedy, that he did not want to pick on young drivers and disagreed with GDL.
Imagine, if we had known of a proven cure for an (imagined) unusual teenage cancer, but had spent 40 years debating whether the minor side effects were more important than a young life with a future to look forward to. For me, and thousands of others, that is exactly what our politicians have done with GDL. There is a ‘cure’ for many, and the ‘side effects’ result in some inconvenience, but could result in a young life with a future life to look forward to.
The absence of policy action from our politicians contributed to the death of Alice, and took away her freedom. All because GDL is deemed unfair. I will trade anyone’s ‘unfair’ any day for Alice’s life. The time for action was before now, but road safety experts and professionals from across the UK are calling for action from the new House of Commons now. I am one of those voices: enough is enough!
Dr Ian Greenwood is a campaigner and PACTS Trustee
Research has been undertaken into the benefits of graduated driver licensing, debunking the concerns of critics and showing the many advantages for young people and the economy, not least the saving of lives and the unnecessary and preventable trauma it causes: Study confirms benefits of graduated driver licensing (racfoundation.org)
An open letter has been written by RoadPeace with PACTS, declaring overwhelming support for GDL.