News

24 April 2007
POLICE CHIEF CALLS FOR DEBATE ON DRIVING RESTRICTIONS FOR YOUNG DRIVERS AND FOR LIMITING THEIR ENGINE SIZES.

Twenty-seven drivers under the age of 26 were caught speeding by Scottish police forces yesterday and 58 were detected for not wearing seatbelts.

Tragically, one incident resulted in a passenger being fatally injured.

Disappointingly, this equates to almost one-third of all drivers and passengers detected not wearing seatbelts being under the age of twenty-six.

Of most concern was the fact that 15 other under 26-year-olds were involved in road crashes that resulted in injuries.

A 16-year-old male passenger died in a road crash in Ayrshire on Monday evening in a vehicle being driven by a 17-year-old male while another teenager (16) was slightly injured in the same crash.

In Linwood, a 15-year-old boy was seriously injured in a road crash where the driver failed to remain at the scene.

These two tragic incidents occurred during a co-ordinated 'day of action' by the Scottish Police Service as part of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland's contribution to the United Nation's Global Road Safety Week (April 23 - 29). The one-day snapshot revealed that many young persons were still flouting the law when it came to seatbelts and speeding.

Chief Constable John Vine, Chair of the ACPOS Road Policing Business Area, said:

''It is disappointing to see that on just one 'day of action' across Scotland that 186 people were caught not wearing a seatbelt, 155 motorists were caught speeding, eight were caught drink or drug driving, and there were 26 reported road crashes. What is even more devastating is the news that in one of those road crashes a 16-year old lost his life.

''We read a great deal about knife crime and the increase in murders where knives are used; however, no one ever mentions the fact that double the number of people are killed on Scotland's roads every year. That's the thing about road crime - people do not perceive it to be as serious and that's part of the problem.

''When we look at the way other countries deal with young drivers, there is a lot that we can learn here in Scotland. Other countries have restrictions placed on new or young drivers and I think that we perhaps need to start looking at introducing something similar here in Scotland. It's time to open up the debate on whether we should be limiting the engine size of cars that young people are allowed to drive, whether they should be allowed to carry passengers or whether they should be allowed to drive at night.

''The ACPOS position on young drivers is going to be formulated at the next Road Policing Committee meeting and what I would like to achieve is a position paper with a consensus, in the same way that we have on drink-driving, where we have argued for a reduction in the limit from 80 microgrammes to 50 microgrammes and less restrictive breath testing.''

The 'day of action' also recorded persons 26 and over involved in speeding (128), not using a seatbelt (128) and drink / drugs driving (6).

In Dumfries and Galloway, a 36-year-old male driver was stopped in the Lockerbie area with three children in the rear seats, aged 9, 2 and nine months, not in child safety seats, although he and his wife were using their seatbelts. Other incidents involving young people included:

In Strathclyde, 20-year-old male was arrested after he took a car without permission and later crashed near Greenock causing slight injury to his two female passengers; meanwhile, in Bearsden a 19-year-old female was charged with careless driving after colliding with a bus. Two people were injured.

In Aberdeen (Grampian), a 19-year-old male driver caused a two-vehicle collision when he failed to comply with a stop sign.

In Inverness (Northern Constabulary), a 19-year-old male was charged with dangerous overtaking and driving 15 miles per hour over the '60' speed limit.

In Crieff, during road checks in Tayside, a driving instructor was found not to be wearing a seatbelt and, in Dundee during a road check, an escapee from Castle Huntly prison was re-captured.