Driving age rise considered

A 12-month 'learner stage' and a driving curfew between 10 pm and 5am are among the changes that have been proposed for new drivers.

The government's Transport Research Laboratory has suggested a new system for learners, aimed at cutting the number of accidents involving young motorists.

ITV News' Rupert Evelyn reports:

The government's Transport Research Laboratory has suggested a new system for learner drivers, the proposals include:

• A 12-month 'learner stage' starting at age 17, during which drivers must drive under supervision for 100 hours in daytime and 20 hours at night
• Upon completion of the learner stage, drivers will need to pass the current theory and practical driving tests
  

• Drivers will then move onto a probationary licence for at least 12 months from the age of 18
  
• During probation drivers will be on a driving curfew between 10 pm and 5am, unless accompanied by a passenger aged over 30
  

• Drivers on probation are also banned from using mobile phones, even if hands-free.
  
• During the probationay period, drivers under 30 are not allowed to carry passengers aged under 30

The AA has cast doubt on plans to impose a curfew on new drivers after they pass their test, after a government-commissioned report proposed raising the minimum driving age from 17 to 18.

AA president Edmund King told the BBC's Today programme that he would rather not restrict what times people could drive and who they could carry in their cars once they had passed their tests, ideas which were floated as part of the age change.

King added: "What we'd like to see is to teach peope to drive more carefully before they pass their test."

Learner drivers should be trained for the road using simulators so they are ready the realities of driving, a young woman who was paralysed from the chest down in a car accident suggested.

Paraplegic Sophie Morgan had been driving for just six months when she got into the life altering crash in 2003 shortly after picking up her A level results.

Read more: Driving age rise considered

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A Department for Transport spokesman said it was hoped that new proposals would provoke debate about the safety of young drivers.

• Read: Driving age to 18 plan

For the first year, newly qualified drivers would be hit by a curfew running between 10pm and 5am unless they were carrying a passenger aged over 30, as well as a ban on carrying anyone younger than that age if they were under it themselves.

More than one fifth of deaths on Britain's roads in 2011 involved drivers aged 17 to 24, and around 10% of novice drivers are caught committing an offence within their probationary period.

• Read: Driving age to 18 plan

Teenagers face having to wait an extra year before being allowed to take a driving test under proposals being looked at by the Government.

Tighter rules aimed at cutting the number of accidents involving young motorists have been put forward that include issuing probationary licences only from the age of 18.

The Government-commissioned report by the Transport Research Laboratory suggests introducing a 12 month "learner stage" that would require drivers to clock up at least 100 hours of daytime and 20 hours of night-time supervised practice.