ABI wants to increase safety for young drivers

The Association of British Insurers has recently revealed a number of key priorities relating to car insurance, which is aimed at making a number of improvements including improving safety for young drivers. The organization said that it wanted to take steps to reduce young driver accidents and more importantly deaths as a matter of urgency.

Otto Thoresen, ABI’s director general, was speaking at the ABI Motor Conference recently and spoke about how all insurance companies were keen to be able to provide customers with competitive prices for their insurance cover. He said that one of the ways that would enable insurance firms to do this was to improve the safety of younger drivers .

Thoreson said that every day around eighteen young people were killed or seriously injured on the roads of Britain. He said that the ABI had called for measures to be taken some years ago to try and reduce these serious injuries and deaths and since then many young lives had been taken on the roads. The ABI wants the government to take steps to help tackle this issue, which will save lives and help to bring insurance costs down.

He said: ‘As a nation of car users with some of the busiest roads in the world, insurers are committed to providing the best possible deal for motorists. One of the key ways to achieve this has to be improving the safety of our young drivers, who continue to make up a disproportionate number of road casualties. Five years ago we called for measures, such as a minimum learning period, to tackle this tragic waste of life, yet every day 18 young people die or are seriously injured on our roads. Insurers are actively helping young drivers through the increasing use of telematic ‘black box’ systems that reward safer driving. But we cannot do this alone. So I reiterate our call to the Government to work with us to tackle this issue. The time has come to seriously consider tougher measures such as a zero tolerance drink-drive limit for drivers under 25, graduated licencing, and restrictions on driving at night and in the early hours.’

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