Indo: Minister misled over no. of learners causing accidents.

seamus

After last weeks big announcement about Provisional Drivers, the indo has reported that the insurance companies misled the Minister for Transport's office over the figures in terms of Learner drivers and accidents. There was some confusion about what he was told. Some papers said L-drivers were 50 times more likely to cause an accident whereas others said they were 50 percent more likely.

I won't write out the whole article, you can probably read it at www.unison.ie

But the main points were:

• Insurance co's once again claimed that young drivers were costing them the most, despite the MIAB's findings that all of the insurance co's made most profit from young drivers, and there were very few sections of people where money wasn't made.
• Drink-Driving ads are consistently aimed at young drivers, yet Men in their 50's are shown to be the major culprits for this.
• Famous Seamus's office has admitted it cannot back up it's '50% more likely' claim with cold, hard facts.
• 1.6% of fatal accidents are caused by L-drivers.
• Even if an L-driver is accompanied, the qualified driver may be doing literaly anything (or even nothing) in the car. "Drunk, asleep, or even having sex" in the car, to quote the minister's office.
• The Gardai pledge to begin proper enforcement of the law, due to public pressure

Nothing we didn't already know, but once again, a Minister has made a big "Hurrah, the solution to all our problems" statement, and made a frenzy in the media, using an unimportant scapegoat. While I agree that the law needs to be enforced, the figures blatantly show that unaccompanied L-drivers are insignificant in terms of making our roads safer.

Mr E

LOL... just posted same in MIJAG!
Great minds think alike, eh Seamus?

- Dave.