| Product: |
Should the minimum driving age be raised to 21? |
| Date: |
08.05.08 (133 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Less deaths
Disadvantages: Less tax income
If you're a Libra driving a blue car, better make sure you have plenty of breakdown cover. For statistically you're the most likely to end up stuck at the side of the road waiting for help. By contrast Pisceans (me) can congratulate themselves on having the fewest breakdowns. Blue (my fav color) is the color of the car most likely to grind to a halt, according to an RAC survey of one million member survey (some of you will remember filling in). The RAC people also discovered that 23% of motorists would put off buying a car if it had an 'unlucky' number on the plate and if it was their unlucky color. But cars with 13 on the number plate are 25% less likely to break down.
The unluckiest of all drivers are the innocent ones that get T-Boned by young drivers, still comfortably the most likely to cause or be involved in fatal crashes. I'm sure we all know the statistics and I don't need to bore you with them. But I'm going to because the under 20s of a male origin are lethal on the road and ten times more likely to be involved in a fatal smash than 40-59 year olds. For me its time to put up the driving age to at least 19. An incredible 45% of road fatalities between 11pm and 6am involve young drivers.
The government agrees that young kid's need more skills before their metal missiles are unleashed on the British public and roads, but 'copped out' of pushing up the current 17-years-old limit to 18, let alone 21, presumably as it wants to continue to cash in on lucrative fuel taxes. If you stop kids taking their tests until 21 you will have less people driving, which is good for congestion easing but that big loss of fuel and road tax not good for Brown. With New Labors mantra always being about forcing people into cars by undermining public transport I don not see any change soon. Yes young guys struggle to get a girlfriend without a car but it's the process of trying to get or impress girls that gets them in trouble and in the ditch.
Browns compromise is to introduce tougher driving tests and theory, but again purely a mechanism to put up the cost to learn to drive, increasing revenue yet again. It's the age old story that we can identify the culprits but we are not prepared to penalize them as they produce tax revenue. Instead we 'flash for cash' pensioners doing 37 in a 30, parking ticket families with only two minutes to get back to their car over the hour and do little to prosecute the ten percent of drivers responsible for 40% of crashes. With derisory £175 fines for people without insurance and tax that cost five times that it's no surprise we have so many dangerous driver son the roads here.
The scheme will provide more rigorous training for both learner driver and instructor and the cost to learn to drive could rise from the average £900 to £1500. According to the Daily Telegraph ministers are set to propose a fixed period to learn to drive, during which learners will be tested on certain tricky disciplines, such as motorways and night driving, before taking the main test. Anyone who drives knows full well they are two tough tests of driving skill. The head of the Driving School Association said if the measures come in the driving lesson costs will rise by a tenner to around £32, on average, usually covered by the bank of mum and dad, but again creating more rogue drivers who just won't bother getting lessons. Again the government doest want to tackle the core issue and get bad drivers of the road because these guys pay fuel tax.
The reckless under 20s group tend to predominate in the rogue drivers categories, those who refuse to pay any tax or insurance. More than two million of them were driving around last year; half of those were male and under 25. Police stats show that driver who doesn't pay road tax has a feeble one-in-twenty chance of being caught. And with those pathetic fines and no prison sentence then why not. Since Blair came to power in 97 there has been a 63 percent increase of non taxed and uninsured vehicles, clearly because it's easy to get away with. Some of you legit drivers are getting hammered by car insurance because of these guys causing lots of accidents and your premiums are having to cover their non-payment. Over the same period successful prosecutions of these guys and girls fell 50%! The police shifted their efforts to nicking speeders to make more money. Drivers who don't pay car tax and insurance rarely pay fines in courts. The government swears they are targeting no 'disced' cars and crushing them, yet the numbers of rogue drivers go up every year.
Unfortunately as good as the Poles are for the economy with their hard work and non claimants of benefits they dominate drink driving statistics in many areas now. Half off all Peterboros court rota's for the day are young Eastern European drink-drivers and so its no surprise there is a high accident and death rate in this group, police believe solely responsible for the rise in road fatalities in the East of England. Because Eastern Eriopean car and trucks don't have to be registered for the first six months for tax and insurance here its inevitable those risks are taken, and with a greatly reduced police patrol on the roads they soon end up in a ditch with a pedestrian or two.
Courts have been accused of going soft on uninsured drivers as the average fine has fallen by more than one fifth since Labor came to power. With fully comp policies costing well over £750, its some £500 more than the regular fine for being a non-insured driver, and, as I said before, no surprise so many people dodge car cover. In 1994 the average fine was £224 and today its £177. That makes no sense and one would presume it's lowered as nobody ever pays it and costs more money than the fine to recover it. Drivers with no insurance are ten times more likely to have drink-driving convictions and six times more likely to be driving an unroadworthy vehicle. One-in fifteen drivers are on the roads without insurance, most of those the young men causing the accidents. With a one hundred thousand rise of uninsured drivers in 2006 alone it seems our new immigrant friends are also picking up our bad habits.
Most disappointing of all is the threat of jail has been effectively lifted for drivers who kill while at the wheel without tax or insurance. Because the prisons are full, even those repeat offenders for driving offences will only receive community services where possible. It's nearly always the case that drivers that are negligent in fatal and serious crashes have offended before and just kept pushing it until the inevitable big one. The loop-hole comes around because a new motoring law of causing death by driving whilst being disqualified, unlicensed or uninsured, diverts offenders away from the crown courts and onto community sentences. It really is time to get tough on young drivers guys. 17 is way too young for this game.
I hope I have listed enough reasons enough for you guys to vote out Labor...
Summary: Fuel tax is king...
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