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Learner drivers will be taught how to drive in adverse, distracting conditions

Embargoed to 0001 Saturday July 20 File photo dated 28/07/09 of a learner driver ripping up her L plate. Several learner drivers in the UK have taken the "try, try again" mantra to new levels, according to data from the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Saturday July 20, 2019. A couple of wannabe motorists, whose enthusiasm to pass was seemingly matched only by their consistent ineptitude behind the wheel, racked up at least 20 practical tests in a single calendar year. See PA story TRANSPORT Tests. Photo credit should read: PA/PA Wire Cost Indicator No Cost - PA Wire/PA Wire

Learner drivers are to be taught how to drive when distracted and in the dark, the roads minister has revealed.

Baroness Vere said the Government was due to trial a new format for driving lessons modeled on the training pilots received to cope with flying in adverse conditions.

She told MPs on the Transport Committee on Wednesday that ministers were also considering introducing a ‘logbook’ system where learners would have to show they had driven in rain and on rural roads to pass.

Her comments came as MPs raised the prospect of Britain after Brexit reintroducing insurance discounts for female drivers after they were banned by the EU in 2012.

Baroness Vere appeared before MPs to be questioned over the Department for Transport’s policies to reduce serious road accidents among young and novice drivers.

Although rates of accidents have dropped by more than half since the 1990s, young drivers still account for a disproportionate number of crashes. They currently make up around seven per cent of licence holders but cause 16 per cent of serious and fatal accidents.

% of road accidents by age of car driver
% of road accidents by age of car driver

To reduce deaths, Baroness Vere said the department had funded the Driving Instructors Association to create a new modular curriculum for learner drivers to ensure they would be trained to deal with an array of road and weather conditions where accidents happen most.

She said the new system was currently being finalised, and is due to start being trialled from January next year.

“What will happen is that there will be various modules,” said Baroness Vere. “So one driving in adverse conditions, one driving after dark, one at high speed [and] one of distracted driving.

“It should be a very organised and well-evidenced way of going through the entire undertaking of learning to drive, and it must focus on the areas that people find most difficult.”

UK Driving Test Pass Rate
UK Driving Test Pass Rate

MPs heard that as part of the overhaul, learner drivers may also have to keep a ‘logbook’ of the conditions and locations they had driven in to ensure city-dwellers could “can cope with rural roads”.

However, Baroness Vere said the department had rejected recommendations from research groups to bring in restrictions on new motorists, preventing them driving at night or with passengers.

Similar schemes, known as graduated driving licences (GDLs), have been introduced in countries such as Canada and usually impose restrictions for the first six months after a driver has passed.

Yet, the minister said she did not see them as a “silver bullet” and that the Government was not prepared to “jump into” placing restrictions on a large swathe of people, especially in light of what the coronavirus pandemic had done to young people’s job prospects.

When questioned about the fact young men caused 80 per cent of young driver deaths, Baroness Vere said did not favour “gender segregation” when it came to driving rules, adding she thought better training was a more effective method of driving down deaths.

“I think I am a very good driver but I am not sure all women are,” she added.

Gender specific driving insurance to return
Gender specific driving insurance to return

MPs also raised the prospect of insurers being allowed to give female drivers discounted premiums again after Brexit. The policies have been banned since the European Court of Justice ruled they were in breach of EU discrimination laws.

Baroness Vere said she was “not aware” that any such reversal of the ban being considered, but added that if discounts were brought back that “perhaps women across the country would rejoice".