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Improving driving standards

While the standard of driving in the UK is better than I have seen in Southern Europe and Africa, lives could still be saved on our roads by improving the general standard of driving.

Progress has been made in curbing drinking and driving by a combination of:

Progress has been made in curbing speeding by a combination of:

There are still many deaths caused by neither drinking nor speed. Some can never be eliminated e.g.

Other deaths are down to habitually poor driving. Currently drivers only have to pass a driving test to get their licence. They are then free to forget how to drive safely and acquire many dangerous driving habits, most of which will never be challenged until they result in an accident. When some drivers narrowly avoid an accident they ask themselves if they were at fault and if they can learn something from it to avoid a similar incident in the furute. Alas, other drivers assume they always blameless and learn nothing.

I frequently see drivers who:

These drivers are only saved from the consequences of their incompetence by the quick reactions of other drivers. I believe these drivers should be identified and re-educated so they can improve or if they fail to improve be banned from the road until they do. One way to do this would be to inroduce a five-yearly driver safety test as follows:

Note: some drivers only make local journeys and never use fast main roads, dual carriageways or motorways. It would be wrong to judge these drivers as unsafe because they lack experience and confidence on types of road they never use. These roads should be optional except for drivers whose work icnludes long distance drives.

Benefits of the scheme

Limitations

Drivers could be divided into these groups:

While it would be desirable to improve driving of both the second and third groups, only the last group will receive the instruction they need. Doubtless there will be those who revert to their bad habits again as soon as they pass a retest, but it is reasonable to hope that at least some will drive more safely, if the risks posed to others by their bad habits is explained. Perhaps most siginificantly, the worst drivers who repeatedly fail a the safety test will be removed from our roads, at least for a while.

I depend on my car to get to work, do shopping and many other journeys. I am willing to have my driving tested for safety. I wonder if the MPs who would have to vote for the scheme have the same confidence.

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