Meeting of the Parliament 25 March 2014
We acknowledge the drop. I simply flag up the recommendations that were made in the 2011 report, and I ask for a progress update.
A further recommendation in that report was to
“Ensure police enforcement continues to be a priority and is undertaken in a strategic and targeted manner, focusing on those young drivers most at risk.”
Will the minister update the Parliament on what Police Scotland is doing to focus on young drivers, particularly those who have recently passed their test?
What is the Scottish Prison Service doing to rehabilitate young drivers who have been given prison sentences for driving offences? What potential is there, as part of that rehab process, for those who are serving sentences to help educate young people? If people were able to share their experiences with younger people, it would contribute towards their own rehabilitation, in the knowledge that they were helping to reduce the problem.
I say that having gone to school with a man who was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving when he was a teenager. He has had to live with the consequences of that throughout his life. The impact on that man is not as much as the impact on the family of the young person who died, but it is still something that he must continue to live with. He would have liked to be able to contribute towards the education of young people, so as to help prevent the same thing from happening in the future.
I do not want to be accused of ageism in focusing my remarks on young drivers, but the statistics speak for themselves. I repeat what I said earlier: road accidents are the biggest threat to the lives of young people today.
We support the motion that is before us in the minister’s name. I repeat the calls for the UK Government to bring forward its green paper on young driver safety. I ask the minister what action the Government is taking right now. I also ask members to support the amendment in my name.
I move amendment S4M-09447.2, after “crash rate for young drivers;” to insert:
“acknowledges the research carried out in Scotland over the last 10 years by Dr Sarah Jones of Cardiff University, which states that a GDL system could save 22 lives and £80 million per year; further”.
14:36Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.