Richard Yarrow's opinion for startrescue.co.uk, providing low cost Breakdown Assistance Cover.
The old adage is that guns don’t kill people. People kill people. The same is true in motoring. Cars don’t go out of control and crash. It's whoever is behind the wheel that is responsible.
Research out this week from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) shows that driver error, driver reaction or (more likely) lack of driver reaction are the reasons behind the top three causes of accidents in the UK. The headline stats are that factors including ‘failed to look properly’ ‘loss of control’ and ‘poor turn or manoeuvre’, accounted for 65.3 per cent of fatal, 61.8 per cent of serious and 68.6 per cent of minor accidents.
What’s called ‘injudicious action’ – illegal or unwise judgements such as exceeding the speed limit, tailgating or making an illegal turn – was the second biggest factor. By comparison, alcohol and drugs play a tiny role.
There is an element of ‘yes, obviously’ about these figures, which bring together data from the last five years. The same response springs to mind when you read what the IAM’s top man Simon Best says.
“What is obvious is that many accidents could be prevented by drivers simply changing their behaviour, as well as gaining more experience.”
The bottom line is that people often aren’t that good at driving, and there’s an obvious element to that statement, too. We all see it on the roads every day.
To my mind it is scandalous that you can pass your driving test at 17 and never need to take a single hour of further instruction on the art of controlling a car and how to drive on our increasingly busy roads.
Why is that? I don’t believe regular retesting is the answer, but a mandatory refresher course every few years wouldn’t do any harm and would provide extra income for driving instructors.
Perhaps it’s something we could have a nationwide referendum on, rather than worrying about which voting system we use to elect our MPs.