bookshop research reports abi young drivers
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INTRODUCTION
The ABI (Association of British Insurers) represents the collective interests of the
UKs insurance industry, around 400 member companies. The ABI is committed to
improving Britains road safety record, and in particular that of young drivers. In2006, we published Young Drivers: Reducing Death on the Roads Four Actions to
Save Lives, outlining the main reasons why young drivers have a poor road safety
record and putting forward four proposals to tackle those reasons. This paper
provides new evidence from the motor insurance market demonstrating that the
problem persists, and supporting our proposals for reform.
THE PROBLEM
Our 2006 paper revealed that young drivers were more than twice as likely as other
drivers to make an insurance claim. Our new evidence confirms this finding.Figure 1, showing the claim rate, or the percentage of policies for which a claim is
made, demonstrates that an 18 year-old is twice as likely to make a claim as
someone in their fifties.
Figu re 1 : Cla im r a te by age
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
Age
Claimr
ate
Source: ABI (based on analysis of 8.5 million claims in 2005 and 2006)
For the first time we can also show that a young driver is more likely to be at fault in
a collision for which they make a claim than another driver. Figure 2, showing the
claim rate where the driver was at fault, demonstrates that an 18 year old driver is
almost three times as likely to cause a collision than a driver in their fifties.
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Figu re 2 : Cla im ra te w here d r i ve r caused the co l l i si on
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
Age
Claimr
ate
Source: ABI
WHY DO YOUNG DRIVERS HAVE A POOR SAFETY RECORD?
In our 2006 paper we identified the main reasons why young drivers have a poor
road safety record: a lack of road experience and an inclination to take unnecessary
risks.
Inexperience and attitude
Some have argued that young drivers have a worse collision rate because a high
proportion of them do not obey the law. Whilst this may be part of the problem, our
new evidence shows that even when young drivers take the same unnecessary
risks as other drivers, such as those that result in speeding convictions, they are
more likely to cause a collision. Figure 3 demonstrates that a young driver with one
speeding conviction is more likely to make a claim than another driver with one
conviction.
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Figu re 3 : Cla im ra te w here d r i ve r has one speed ing conv ic t i on
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
Age
Claimr
ate
Source: ABI
Inexperience and age
Our evidence shows that inexperience is much more of a problem for young novice
drivers than for other novice drivers. Figure 4 shows, for example, that an 18 year
old novice driver with up to one years driving experience is almost 50% more likely
to make a claim than a novice driver in their thirties.
Figu re 4 : Cla im ra te fo r nov i ce d r i ve rs w i th l ess than one yea r ' s d r i v ing
exper ience
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
Age
ClaimR
ate
Source: ABI
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Our evidence also shows that inexperience is a particular problem for young drivers
in their first year of driving. Figure 5 shows that the fall in the claim rate in the first
and second year of driving decreases dramatically with age. For example, Driver A
who has less than one years experience when 18 is 34% less likely to make a claim
when they are 19, and 45% less likely to make a claim when aged 20. By contrast,Driver B who has less than one years experience when 20 is only 18% less likely to
make a claim when they are 21, and only 22% less likely to make a claim when
aged 22.
Figu re 5 : Cla im ra te by l eve l o f d r i v ing exper ience
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
18 19 20 21 22 - 25 26 - 30
Age
Claimr
ate
Less than 1 year (novice) 1-2 years 2-3 years
Source: ABI
IMPROVING THE SAFETY RECORD OF YOUNG DRIVERS
Tackling inexperience
Young drivers are more at risk even when committing the same offences as other
drivers, so putting more resources into enforcing speed restrictions and other road
laws, while sensible, will not tackle the heart of the problem facing young drivers.
The evidence presented in this paper demonstrates that it is the inexperience of the
young driver group as a whole that is affecting their road safety record.
In our 2006 paper, we looked at experience in other parts of the world in reducing
the collision rates of young drivers, and put forward four proposals for the UK:
a 12-month minimum learning period;
a structured learning programme for all new drivers;
actions to encourage young drivers to carry fewer passengers;
actions to encourage fewer night-time journeys.
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A partnership between the public and private sectors is needed to deliver these
proposals; and progress has been made on three of the four proposals. In
response to the Transport Committees inquiry into novice drivers in 2007, the
Government promised The forthcoming consultation document on reform of driver
training and testingwill include proposals for structuring learning to drive in thecontext of a new structured syllabus; and will discuss whether this syllabus needs to
be reinforced by a mandatory minimum learning period.1 In addition, several
insurers now offer products that offer lower premiums to customers but with a higher
rate for driving at night.
However, more remains to be done. In particular, it will be important to help protect
young novice drivers by limiting the number of passengers they can carry in the first
six months of driving.
Encouraging young drivers to carry fewer passengers
The presence of friends in their car can both distract young drivers and encourage
them to drive in a more risky way. In our 2006 paper, we cited evidence
demonstrating that the collision rate for young drivers increases with each additional
passenger carried: compared with driving alone, the risk of a fatal collision for young
drivers is 39% higher with one passenger, 85% higher with two, and 182% higher
with three or more.2
Moreover, collisions involving young drivers tend to involve more injured
passengers. Figures Six and Seven show that the average number of injured
passengers falls as the driver gets older. For every ten collisions where a driver
aged 17-19 is killed, eight passengers will be killed or injured for male drivers, sevenfor female drivers. By contrast, for every ten collisions where a driver aged over
thirty is killed, between three and four passengers will be killed or injured for male
drivers, two for female drivers.3
1Transport Committee, Novice Drivers: Government Response to the Committees Seventh Report of Session
2006-07, October 2007.2
Chen, L.H., Baker, S.P., et al, Carrying Passengers as a risk factor for crashes fatal to 16- and 17-year old drivers,
Jama 283 C12, 20003
Broughton, J, Buckle, G Monitoring progress towards the 2010 casualty reduction target 2005 data, TransportResearch Laboratory 2007
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Figu re 6 : Car passenger casua l t i es pe r m a le d r i ve r
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
17-19 20-22 23-26 27-30 31-99
Driver age
Carpassengercausalties
Fatal Serious Slight Any NoneDriver's injuries were:
Source: Transport Research Laboratory4
Figur e 7 : Car passenger casua l t ies per fem ale dr iv er
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
17-19 20-22 23-26 27-30 31-99
Driver age
Carpassengercausalties
Fatal Serious Slight Any NoneDriver's injuries were:
Source: Transport Research Laboratory5
A structured learning programme could include a minimum amount of experience of
driving in different road, weather and traffic conditions. However, it would be difficult
to introduce an element of training in carrying passengers. For this reason, post-test
measures are common across the world: in the US, Australia and New Zealand,
young drivers can carry no or a limited number of passengers for 6-12 months after
4Broughton, J, Buckle, G Monitoring progress towards the 2010 casualty reduction target 2005 data, Transport
Research Laboratory 2007.5Ibid.
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passing their test. Data from the US shows that, on average, a reduction of 25% in
the number of crashes was achieved over a ten-year period following the
implementation of various post-test measures, predominantly focusing on restricting
the number of passengers (Table 1). An average of 37% fatal crash reduction was
achieved during the same period where restrictions on the number of passengerswas implemented.
Tab le 1 : Crash reduc t ion w here pos t - t es t m easures i n p lace
US/ Canadian Stat e Crash reduc t ion
British Columbia 16%
California 23%
Georgia 30%
Florida 9%
Maryland 21%
Michigan 38%
North Carolina 39%
Nova Scotia 29%
Ohio 23%
Pennsylvania 28%
Average 25%
Source: Ferguson International LLC
CONCLUSION
In light of the success of post-test measures in other countries, the ABI recommend
that drivers under 20 should be allowed to carry no more than one teenage
passenger for six months after passing their test. We call on the Government to
implement this measure in addition to a structured learning programme and a
minimum learning period, in order to reduce the unacceptably high number of young
people being killed or seriously injured on our roads each year.