Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen has praised road safety trailblazers in Northern Ireland for successfully adopting new rules to save the lives of young drivers.
Northern Ireland will become the first in the UK to implement graduated driver licensing (GDL) reforms – an issue the County Durham and Darlington PCC has long campaigned for in England, Scotland and Wales.
The changes, due to be implemented in October, will see Northern Ireland imposing a version of GDL legislation which has brought a 20-40% reduction in crashes involving young drivers in countries where the rules are already in place.
The PCC, who is Joint National Lead for Roads Policing on behalf of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners(APCC), recently hosted a Project Edward webinar alongside her APCC colleague, Warwickshire PCC Philip Seccombe, with key road safety experts from Northern Ireland to hear how they were able to get GDL over the line.
The webinar, which formed part of a series hosted by the PCCs, explored the evidence, politics and practicalities of the licensing overhaul and what it could mean for Great Britain.
The new measures will apply to all new drivers in Northern Ireland but are primarily aimed at 17 to 23-year-olds who are statistically more likely to be involved in a fatal or serious collision on the roads.
It will mean a new six-month minimum learning period for new drivers before they can take their driving test and the necessity of displaying an ‘R’ plate on their vehicles for a period of 24months after passing their test.
In other changes, drivers will need to successfully complete 14 modules in a new training programme that has to be signed off by a driving instructor or supervising driver and will only be permitted to have one passenger aged between 14 and 20 in their car between 11pm and 6am.
In the webinar, the PCC and panel members head evidence from Chief Superintendent Sam Donaldson, Gold Lead for Road Safety on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Pat Delaney, Director of Operations for the Driver & Vehicle Agency Northern Ireland, and retired firefighter Davy Jackson, Chair of Road Safe Northern Ireland.
Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen said: “I am delighted these life-saving changes will now become a reality in Northern Ireland. These vital reforms have been in the pipeline in Northern Ireland since 2016, and it has taken a great deal of passion, support, determination and grit to get them over the line.
“For too long, discussions about GDL have focused on what it restricts not what it bestows. I am proud of the policymakers in Northern Ireland and all those who fought so passionately for this change – and the positive example it sets to the rest of the UK.
“For me, this has always been about safeguarding – giving young people the best possible start to their driving lives and protecting them and those they share the road with.
“I believe GDL is one of many interventions critically needed to prevent future fatalities on our roads and I will continue to do everything in my power to see that it is implemented here.
“Together, our voices are strengthening the case for GDL across the UK and putting the safety of young and novice drivers top of the agenda.”
The full video of the webinar is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43bAErGeL8w.
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