Young drivers in fast cars are the only problem on our roads, right? Caroline Madden isn't convinced
Whenever I turn the key in my trusty car and the engine purrs into action, the chilling fact that road crashes are the single biggest killer of people my age always lurks at the back of my mind.
The sobering statistics relating to young drivers are now impossible to avoid, with headlines, ad campaigns, politicians and public outcry all driving the message home, and rightly so.
Yet when sensible middle-aged drivers shake their heads smugly and ask what has gone so horribly wrong with the youth of today, why are they so reckless, so careless with their lives, I can't help but marvel at their selective memory loss.
Perhaps they should cast their minds back to the late 1960s/early 1970s when my parents' generation were first taking to the roads in their Minis and Morris Minors. Driving schools were virtually non-existent, and parents, siblings and friends were relied upon to impart the basic rudiments of motoring.
Admittedly horse power and average speeds were considerably lower at the time, as was the volume of vehicles on the roads, but nevertheless driving was a pretty hazardous pursuit. Those were the days when many cars still sported little yellow flags to indicate a change of direction, rather than flashing indicator lights.
Seat belts were considered the cutting edge of safety technology, but the few motorists whose cars were fitted with belts rarely wore them. Compare this to the airbags, crumple zones, collision warning systems, and anti-roll bars that are becoming standard features in the modern car. Add to all this the fact that by all accounts the road network at the time was highly dangerous, even when travelling at low speeds - not to mention that drink-driving and speeding were socially acceptable. Is it any surprise that there were over 600 fatalities on the road each year in the early 1970s, compared with the current level of 400?
Let's rewind back another generation. When my grandfather bought himself a Volkswagon Beetle in the 1950s, he simply had to fill out a form and pay one pound to his local motor tax office in order to obtain a driving licence and take to the open roads.
Unsurprisingly, during the 1950s and early 1960s, accident levels became so high that the government of the day was put under pressure to implement regulations requiring drivers to pass a test in order to get a licence. Expert help was enlisted from Britain - which already had a system of testing in place - and in 1964 the very first driving test was put in place here. Now back to the present. Like most people I know, my first foray into the world of driving took the form of a series of lessons with a qualified instructor. And like anyone who sat their driving test since 2000, I had to first pass a theory test before moving on to the practical element of the test.
According to Michael Comer, chief driving tester with the Department of Transport, the theory test has been very effective in increasing drivers' road safety awareness. And like 40,000 other recently qualified drivers, I then completed Hibernian's Ignition training course. Run by the Institute of Advanced Motorists, it is a mixture of theoretical and practical training, and focuses on sharpening your observation skills, teaching you how to negotiate a dual carriageway safely and so on. Passing the ignition course knocked 30 per cent off my insurance premium.
From an insurer's perspective, young motorists are the highest risk group out there, but interestingly Hibernian has found that customers who pass the ignition course present quite a different picture. When Hibernian compared their ignition customers to other cohorts such as 30 to 40-year-olds, 40 to 50-year-olds and so on, there was very little material difference between these groups from an underwriting perspective.
Now compare that group of drivers with those who received their licence under the 1979 amnesty, introduced to alleviate the huge backlog of people waiting to sit their driving test. It is estimated that as many as 40,000 full driving licences may have been handed over to people on their second provisional licence, many of whom had already failed their test, and none of whom had demonstrated their competency to drive.
So just how many people are there on our roads who have a full driving licence but never had to sit a test? It would seem that the Government just don't know. The Central Statistics Office said that its records relating to licensing do not go back as far as the 1960s.
The Vehicle Registration Unit of the Department of the Environment - which issues an annual bulletin containing driver licensing statistics - also said that it only had relevant information from 1985 onwards, and suggested that it was the responsibility of the Department of Transport to maintain records before that.
In turn the Department of Transport said that they were not aware of any pre-1964 statistics, and said that this was probably due to the fact that responsibility for the driving test has changed between departments over the years. It would appear that the Government has no idea how many untested fully-licensed drivers are now on the roads.
Dick O'Driscoll, managing director of Hibernian general insurance, says of the current situation on our roads: "There's been a lot of focus on road deaths and serious injuries and on some of the more unfavourable trends and I think there's been a particular focus on the fact that there is a group of drivers - young, inexperienced males principally, between the ages of 17 to 24 or 25 - who seem to dominate the statistics and I think we're all massively concerned about what we can do to try and improve those statistics .
"But I don't think that those statistics should be allowed to take focus away from the fact that there has been a big improvement in Ireland."
Taking into consideration the number of million kilometres being travelled here, the vehicle population and the number of people who are regular road users, the picture has improved consistently over the years and Ireland has moved from being way down the league in terms of European performance to being in the better half, Mr O'Driscoll explains.
All things considered, if I had the choice I think I'd rather take my chances as part of this generation of young drivers with improving - though far from perfect - training rather than those who have gone before us.
The road to stricter testing
1893 - France becomes the first country to introduce a driving test
1935 - The British government is forced to follow suit after 7,343 people are killed on Britain's roads the previous year
1964 - Three decades later, Ireland introduces a driving test modelled along the lines of the British test in place at the time.
Before that, licences could be obtained by simply filling out a form and paying a small application fee
1979 - The Government issues an estimated 40,000 amnesty licences to drivers on second provisional licences. The amnesty is branded a "criminally irresponsible decision" by some
2000 - The National Car Test (NCT) is introduced
2001 - Learner drivers are now required to pass a theory test before sitting the driving test
2006 - The Road Safety Authority is established to improve Ireland's road safety record