£12,000 – the cost of a first year’s motoring

Young drivers are likely to pay more than £12,000 for a year on the road, even before their car is driven anywhere, according to road safety charity the IAM.

In order to afford the costs of lessons and a first year of driving, a 17 year old male would have to pay £12,300. In 2009, the average full-time salary for 16-17 year-olds was £9,300 and for 18-21 year-olds, £14440. The biggest proportion of that cost is not the price of an insurance-friendly car, but the insurance itself. The breakdown of costs, excluding fuel and maintenance, is:

• Average cost of lessons before you pass test, £1128
• Driving test costs (theory and practical assuming first time pass), £100
• Five-year-old Kia Picanto, £3000
• Insurance (based on popular comparison site quote), £7900
• Tax and MOT, £180

Young men pay the most for insurance because they are the highest risk on the road. But legislation coming in at the end of 2012 will make it illegal for companies to discriminate on grounds of gender - young women are likely to see their premiums rise significantly. IAM chief executive Simon Best said: "The average cost of a claim by young drivers is £4,500, but insurance can cost nearly twice that. This will have an effect on road safety because young drivers are consequently unlikely to afford newer and safer vehicles. It also affects their chances of getting a job, especially in rural areas where a car is essential to get to work. "The IAM wants to see driving risks - and therefore claims - reduced with more pre-driving training for 14 to 16 year olds, so that they understand the skills they will need when they get behind the wheel.  "We also need to see post-test training for young drivers in the first 12 to 18 months after passing their driving test. In Austria this has been shown to cut the death rate for young male drivers by 30 per cent*. "Where drivers can demonstrate that post-test training reduces their risk, the insurance industry needs to respond with lower premiums." ENDS

Notes:

1. *In Austria new drivers have at least three further contacts with qualified instructors within 12 to 18 months of passing their driving test. This has successfully reduced the number of deaths of young male drivers by nearly 30 per cent. After taking the test, drivers have an initial assessment to gain knowledge of their experience and to highlight any deficiencies. This is followed by visits to a road safety centre to demonstrate handling in the wet, speed into corners and the impact of speed on stopping distances.
   
2. The IAM is the UK's largest independent road safety charity, dedicated to improving standards and safety in driving, motorcycling and cycling. The commercial division of the IAM operates through its occupational driver training company IAM Drive & Survive. The IAM has more than 200 local volunteer groups and over 100,000 members in the UK and Ireland. It is best known for the advanced driving test and the advanced driving, motorcycling and cycling courses. Its policy and research division offers advice and expertise on road safety.

http://www.iam.org.uk/

Cheapest Cars to Insure For 17-20 Year Olds Revealed

Ford KA and Peugeot top the poll

Ford KA2 cheapest car to insure for 17-20 year olds

Honda Civic most expensive car to insure for 17- 20 year olds¹

50% of under 25s could save up to £594 on car insurance

17-20 year olds pay over £4,000 a year for car insurance

New research from Confused.com has found the cheapest cars to insure for 17-20 year olds. The Ford KA2 topped the leader board followed closely by the Peugeot 107. However Confused.com data shows the worst car to run if you're a young driver and looking for low insurance prices is the Honda Civic. This research is capped and based on vehicles between the values of £600 to £10,000.

Car insurance costs for young drivers hit record highs in the second quarter this year, with 17-20 year olds paying as much as four times the average amount for car insurance.

The Confused/Towers Watson price index shows that motor insurance based on a 17-20 year old male is now £4,006 per year for comprehensive cover, highlighting the need for research when buying a car.

To help young drivers, Confused.com has undertaken research to give teenagers a helping hand and unveiled the five cheapest and most expensive cars to insure for 17-20 year olds.

Top five cheapest cars to insure for 17-20 year olds

Make	Yearly Insurance Cost	Monthly Insurance Cost
1. Ford KA2	£1,651.40	137.62
2. Ford KA	£1,781.25	148.44
3. Peugeot 107	£1,994.42	166.20
4. Daewoo Matiz	£2,258.26	188.19
5. Mini One	£2,268.85	189.07

Top five most expensive cars to insure for 17-20 year olds

Make	Yearly Insurance Cost	Monthly Insurance Cost
1. Honda Civic	£4,515.92	£376.33
2. Volkswagen Golf	£3,928.30	£327.36
3. Vauxhall Astra	£3,722.97	£310.25
4. Ford Focus	£3,677.06	£306.42
5. Renault Megane	£3,327.21	£277.26

 Gareth Kloet, Head of Car Insurance at Confused.com says: "Young drivers and learners are telling us that the cost of insurance is the biggest barrier to getting behind the wheel: more so than the cost of buying the car.

"Buying your first car should be exciting, not a worry about whether you can afford the insurance costs. Here at confused.com we want to offer young drivers the chance to find the perfect car with the cheapest insurance."

"Once the car has been found drivers should shop around for cover as premiums can vary greatly between providers; a comparison site is a great way to do this."

Using A Mobile Phone While Driving Poses No Crash Risk

A new study claims driving while talking a mobile phone causes no increased crash risk. This claim, by two academic from the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago, has caused outrage amongst road safety experts.

The study was based on mobile phone data from the United States. After isolating calls made solely from moving vehicles, they analysed the spike in phone use when cheap evening rates kicked in. they expected to see a rise in crashes, but were shocked to find none. From this they have concluded that the current belief, talking into a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of crashing by 400%, is wrong.

An explanation for this may be that when talking into a mobile phone drivers reduce their speed and up their concentration levels, as compensation for the perceived additional risk.

However, the study and the findings have been widely condemned with one critic pointing out that the rise in mobile phone use may have been due to passengers in the car and not the drivers.

Driving While Tired As Bad As Driving While Drunk

A study by Utrecht University in the Netherlands has shown that driving while tired can be as bad as driving while drunk. The study showed that after just two hours behind the wheel, drivers made the same mistakes they would if they had 0.05% blood alcohol content, which is more than half the UK legal drink drive limit. After three hours’ driving their performance corresponded to 0.08% blood alcohol content, the national limit. By four and a half hours, it was equivalent to 0.10%. Driver tiredness is thought to be responsible for 20% of road deaths in the UK.

Drugalyser

The Home Office has produced the specification for a new poilice-station based drug screening device to test drivers suspected of drug driving, pushing it higher up the practical delivery date list. The drugalyser testing kits, capable of identifying substances such as amphetamines, cannabis and ecstasy, will be available for police to use by July.

In addition to this new station based tester police will have new roadside testing devices ready to use by 2012.

These devices will enable screening of suspects at police stations, removing the need to call out a doctor. If the screening is positive, a blood sample will be taken straight away for evidential testing. This should reduce the waiting time before evidential samples are taken, helping to ensure that any drug levels are recorded before they dissipate.

Currently, there is no law against driving under the influence of illegal drugs. Prosecutors have to prove that the presence of the drug had impaired the motorist.

Drivers Escaping Reality

Between 14% and 17% of drivers killed or injured in road crashes have drugs in their system. This is according to a new report from the International Transport Forum: a transport think tank at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The report is based on roadside tests, surveys and questionnaires from 16 countries. It highlights some worrying facts and shows that cannabis and benzodiazepines top the list of drugs involved in lethal motor accidents.

Jack Short, secretary of the International Transport Forum, said ‘both illicit substances and prescribed medicines are involved. Current drink-driving measures and legislation do not take this into account.’

The forum says the drug-driving issue is moving up the policy agenda in many countries, and a major European Union funded research project called DRUID (Driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol and medicines) is already in progress across Europe.

Older Drivers Are Safer

The latest analysis of the official road casualty figures by the IAM reveals that the greatest risk to pedestrians is car drivers under the age of 30 who are involved in more than a third of pedestrian fatalities. Whilst there have been big reductions in fatalities within our two most vulnerable age groups over recent years – 33% in the 16-19 year age bracket, 25% for drivers in their 70’s and 22 % for drivers aged 80 or over since 2008 – 16-19 year olds continue to be the highest casualties by a long way. The other side of the equation shows that the greatest risk to the oldest group on the road is as a pedestrian – pedestrian risk increases from 2% of those injured aged between 20 and 50, to around 9% aged 80 and over – in particular from young drivers.

Increasing age and experience behind the wheel makes a rapid difference. During their teens and twenties the risk of young drivers being killed halves every five years as they gain more driving experience.

This has led some in the industry to call for post-test training to be made compulsory such as it is in countries such as Austria, where reductions of up to 30% in young male fatalities have been achieved. If new drivers can be kept alive during this most dangerous stage of their driving career, the risk of them becoming another killed or seriously injured statistic reduces significantly.

Despite widespread beliefs to the contrary, older drivers are no more likely to be involved in an injury crash than middle aged drivers, and are much less at risk than drivers aged under 30.