Young drivers at greater risk for crashes

Forty-eight people died on Lincolnshire’s roads in 2023 and there were 378 serious injuries, figures show

Young drivers in Lincolnshire are at greater risk of being involved in a crash on the county's roads compared to any other age range, figures show.

Simon Outen-Coe, from the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, said: "It's not necessarily about them being at fault all the time, but they are over-represented in our figures.

Forty-eight people died on Lincolnshire’s roads in 2023, and there were 378 serious injuries.

Mr Outen-Coe said they wanted to encourage the use of black boxes to help reduce the number of collisions involving under 25s.

There have been several recent fatal crashes involving young people on the county's roads, including a 17-year-old who died after an "intoxicated" driver lost control of his car.

In October last year, four men, who had been racing each other, were found guilty of causing the death by dangerous driving of a 20-year-old woman in a collision.

According to the road safety partnership, there were 10,881 recorded collisions on Lincolnshire's roads between 2019 and 2023 which resulted in either fatal, serious or slight injuries.

Mr Outen-Coe said over the period approximately 30% of the crashes involved a person aged 25 or under.

"When you then break it down a bit further, 24% of those involved in injury collisions were drivers aged 25 and under," he said.

"I think some of this is down to the fact they are still developing, and younger people don't necessarily have that hazard perception, and the ability to assess risk in quite the same way as you do as you get older.

"There are some [young drivers] who are very responsible, but there are others who aren't," he added.

'Risk to others'

Mr Outen-Coe said the freedom that comes with driving also comes with "a lot of responsibility".

"What we are trying to do is encourage a conversation [about this]."

He said: "One of the things we could encourage is the adoption of black boxes in your first two years after passing your test."

This would help to curb some of the "more excessive behaviours", while encouraging responsible road use, he said.

It would also recognise if someone's driving habits presented a risk to others, he added.

"It wouldn't stop everything, but it would certainly give us more of an insight into what's happening prior to an accident so, while not supervised as you are as a learner, you've still got some degree of supervision."

Elsewhere, some have suggested the introduction of a graduated driving licence including restrictions on passenger numbers and driving at night.

Nationally, government figures from 2022 suggested a fifth of all fatal or serious injury crashes involved a young driver.

Drivers aged 17 to 24 were also four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as those over 25.

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