Drivers born after 2007 face 'dangerous' rule change

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A new study has found that nearly a third of dangerous driving endorsements are held by motorists under the age of 25

By

Jordan Coussins &

Jack Mortimer

Young drivers are behind a lot of collisions

A concerning trend of young people engaging in dangerous driving and then sharing videos of it on social media needs to be curbed. IMA RoadSmart, a prominent safety campaign group, has unveiled the disturbing findings of a new study, revealing that almost one in three serious driving offense endorsements involve drivers under 25.

The organization's investigation found out that a whopping 38 percent of DD40 endorsements, which are given for committing serious driving offenses, were handed to the youngest group of licensed road users, those born from 2007 onwards, throughout 2023.

Now, the charity is demanding a rule change to prevent horrific driving from being paraded on social media sites.

Nicholas Lyes, Director of Policy at IMA RoadSmart, spoke to Auto Express, stressing the study's evidence of a noticeable absence of both responsibility and risk awareness among under-25s.

Lyes stated: "Many young people don't take responsibility when they're in charge of a one-or-more-tonne piece of metal and that comes with very tragic consequences.

Statistically, [dangerous driving] is a bigger problem amongst younger men as their brains typically take longer to develop the idea of risk", reports the Express.

Furthermore, according to IMA Roadsmart, there was a significant uptick in dangerous driving endorsements during 2023.

In that year, 1,928 endorsements were doled out to young drivers aged between 17 to 25, representing an increase of roughly 350 since two years ago.

The charity sounded the alarm on the continuation of this worrying trend into 2024, citing a shocking figure of 1,128 new endorsements issued to youngsters during the first half of the year alone.

Cases of dangerous driving seem to be on the up among younger drivers, possibly driven by an increase in social media video popularity.

Nicholas has urged social platforms to scrub such videos to deter imitation.

He emphasized: "There's a responsibility on social media platforms to take this type of content down. In an age of artificial intelligence, it's frustrating that this type of content isn't removed within minutes."