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.

Cheaper Car Insurance For Young Drivers?

Young Marmalade, the young driver car insurance company, are promising to half the cost of young driver car insurance by introducing a new scheme that uses an electronic 'black box' to assess how safely the insured car is being driven. Of course if the black box shows evidence of hard accelerating, harsh braking, speeding and even aggressive cornering then the monthly premium will rise significantly, however if the car is driven in a safe and controlled manner the cost of insuring the car will be significantly cheaper than standard insurance.

The technology behind the system seems rather impressive. The black box scores the driver out of 100, and a head-up display allows the driver to see how 'safely' they are driving. The black box even has the ability to disable the car if it considers that the car is being driven dangerously.

With the cost of driving, especially for young drivers, seemingly always on the rise this system has the potential to be quite asuccess. The average young driver can expect to pay around £1,100 for their third party car insurance. The AA report that this cost has risen 13% in the last three months alone.

For tips on reducing your car insurance costs see'

http://www.driving-test-success.com/passed/car_insurance.html

Top Ten Reasons Why Drivers Crashed in 2009

Recently released statistics from the Department for Transport show that nearly a third of all crashes in England (2009) were caused by the driver failing to look properly.

The top ten reasons are as follows:

Failed to look properly  - 38%

Failed to judge other person's path or speed - 20%

Careless, reckless or in a hurry - 15%

Loss of control - 15%

Poor turn or manoeuvre - 14%

Slippery road, due to weather - 11%

Travelling too fast for the conditions - 9%

Following too close - 6%

Exceeding the speed limit - 5%

Impaired by alcohol - 5%

Wearing A Seatbelt Matters

A new report from the AA reveals that a third of car occupants killed weren't wearing a seatbelt. The report shows that seatbelts more than halve the risk of death in a collision. However, the 7 percent not wearing seatbelts are overrepresented in fatalities, which suggest that the sort of driver who chooses not to wear a belt is twice as likely to be involved in a crash as someone who does wear a seatbelt.

Nearly 300 lives a year would be saved if all car occupants wore a seatbelts. The report shows lower seat belt wearing amongst men - especially young men, rear seat passengers, company car drivers and only 69 percent of drivers of vans, lorries, buses, coaches and minibuses regularly wear seat-belts.

Boys Really Are Better Drivers...?

Dare I say this, new findings reveal that men are naturally better drivers than women, following an experiment involving over 70 pre-school boy and girls who took part in a series of controlled tests. The research was conducted using electric Roary the Racing Car ride-ons at the motor racing circuit Brands Hatch.

The findings proved that although girls were slightly quicker off the mark at the start of the race, boys were 34% better at concentrating and demonstrating visual-spatial skills whilst driving in a straight line.

Although girls' overall speed is 5% faster than boys when racing straight, boys are 20% better than girls at maintaining their line.

Pre-schoolers aged 3-4 years were deemed best for this study to test natural driving ability, according to child psychologist Donna Dawson, who went on to say 'The research proved that the boys come up trumps, but that the girls also excelled in different areas, such as listening and better hand coordination.'

When manoeuvring around cones, boys pipped the girls on speed by 10%, whilst girls had greater focus and better hand dexterity.

Surprisingly, the reverse test reveals that boys are 17% better than girls at doing two things at once, such as moving and steering whilst looking over their shoulder.