Moray MP Douglas Ross who earlier this month suggested a form of Graduated Driving Licence could be piloted in Scotland, has announced a date for his Facebook live discussion on this topic, with two senior road safety academics.
Douglas said “When I first raised the issue of a Graduated Driving licence it’s fair to say it prompted a lot of feedback, largely negative and certainly posing many questions. Instead of shying away from this criticism I want to address it and see if those who oppose the plans are correct, or if in fact such a scheme could help to save live and reduce road collision. I’m hosting this Facebook live discussion on at 6.30pm on Tuesday 23rd July 2019 with Dr Sarah Jones formerly of Cardiff University and now with NHS Wales and Dr Shaun Helman, Chief Scientist at the Transport Research Laboratory.
“It is a fact that too many lives are being lost on our roads and one life lost is one too many.
“We have to work together to make our roads safer for all road users. Statistics tell us that the highest number of fatalities and serious injury collisions are caused by predominately young male drivers.
“In Scotland 12.5% of all road collisions involve a driver aged between 17 and 19 years. If a Graduated Driving Licence was to be introduced in Scotland alone up to 299 casualties could be prevented and there would be 45 less killed or seriously injured.
“Alarmingly, in the Highlands and Grampian areas 15.7 % of all collisions involve a driver aged between 17 and 19 years. In these areas alone we could reduce the casualties by 64 and prevent those killed or seriously injured by 13 if a form of graduated licence was introduced.
“Since I announced this proposal there has been a lot of discussion generated on a scheme which has proved successful in the USA, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong.
“Each of those countries have chosen variations of the scheme so there is a ‘drop down’ menu of options we could adopt. I think at the very least this deserve further discussion and I hope many people who have contacted me about the proposals can join our discussion and learn more about what the scheme involves, and how it could make our roads safer and save lives.”