Young driver crash rates in Great Britain: trends and comparisons between countries

This study found that while young driver crash rates are declining more rapidly than those for older drivers, the ‘inequalities gap’ between the two groups remains ‘large’.

The study was carried out by Dr Sarah Jones from Public Health Wales, and published in the Journal of Transport & Health.

In the study, police crash data for 2000 to 2013 was used to calculate the numbers of collisions involving young drivers (17-19 years) and older drivers (20+ years). Annual driver licensing data, obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the same period, was then used to calculate three year rolling average crash rates for both groups.

The results show that for Great Britain, young driver crash rates dropped by 61.4% between 2000-02 and 2011-13, from 42.1 per 1,000 to 16.2. For older drivers, the drop was 45.1%, from 6.5 to 3.6 (per 1,000).

The report concludes that “urgent action is needed if the inequalities (between young and older driver crash rates) are to be addressed and the burden of road traffic crashes, injuries and deaths on health and health services is to be reduced”.