What the media says about me...

"Maverick"

Ann Treneman. The Times. March 2008

MP Urges New Transport Minister to Bring in New Laws for Learner Drivers

Tags: driving | Press Release | safety

Monday, 06 October 2008 00:00

Local MP, Gordon Prentice, has today written to the new Transport Secretary, Geoff Hoon, urging him to back proposals for a new graduated licence scheme as "a sure fire way of cutting road deaths". Speaking from Westminster, the MP said: "The campaign, spearheaded by the Lancashire Telegraph, is targeted at young men who, behind the wheel, can be a menace to themselves and others." "I want the new Transport Minister to look at the issue afresh. All my colleagues in East Lancashire, without exception, are signed up to the Telegraph's campaign." The Government has so far ruled out a graduated licence and wants improved driver education and training. The Government's consultation on the proposed new drivers scheme ended last month. Note to Editors: The Pendle MP had an adjournment debate on road safety in July. During the debate he said: "In East Lancashire, between 2000 and 2006, there were 22 male fatalities and three female fatalities resulting from accidents involving a young male driver—21 years old or under. However, where the car was driven by a young woman, there were no male fatalities and only one female fatality. That underlines the difference that gender makes. The problem is not with young women, but almost exclusively with young men. A couple of months ago I had lunch with the editor of the Lancashire Telegraph, and I asked him how the wasted lives campaign began. He said that—these are my words, not his—he just got sickened and appalled, and dreaded going into the office on a Monday morning knowing that the paper would have to report some terrible carnage that had occurred on the roads in east Lancashire. It was his and his colleagues’ job to write them up. These are the kind of headlines that he was talking about: “Man, 24, dies in crash: garage worker battled to save trapped driver”, “Another Friday night, another senseless car crash”, “Not Again”, “It ruins lives”—so it goes on. It is an endless stream of horror stories. The six MPs in east Lancashire are all signed up to the Lancashire Telegraph campaign, and have been reported and quoted in the paper as saying so. We, the Telegraph and the people of east Lancashire want graduated licences in two parts. Part one could be granted at age 17, but with restrictions, so that a 17-year-old could not drive on a motorway without an instructor, would have to adhere to a 50 mph maximum on all other roads, and could only drive cars limited to 80 bhp—brake horsepower—which I am told is something like a Ford Focus. Furthermore, crucially, these young people could not drive with passengers aged between 10 and 25 until they passed part two, which would be taken a year later at age 18. We think that the effective age at which a full driving licence can be held should be 18. Under our proposals, drivers aged under 25 would not be able to drive between 10 pm and 6 am until they had passed the two parts of that test, unless they were supervised by a driver aged over 25. Furthermore, the probationary plates that I mentioned earlier would be mandatory. After passing part two, drivers would be restricted to a Ford Focus equivalent car and would not be allowed to carry passengers between 10 pm and 6 am for another two years. That might sound draconian, but tragedy has touched so many families in east Lancashire that we need such measures