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Young male drivers - a danger to themselves and others at night

An AA Motoring Trust report has revealed an 'alarming disregard for safety' among some young men when driving at night.

Night-time Accidents, a two-year study by University College London, is the first to examine night-time experiences and attitudes of drivers. It reveals the worrying extent to which some young men push themselves and their cars to the limit. Casualty figures show just how often things do go wrong for this group at night, with fatal and serious consequences.

The report shows young male drivers aged 17-20 years to be seven times more at risk than all male drivers. However, between the hours of 2am and 5am this risk is 17 times higher, and about 225 in this age group are killed or seriously injured annually.

Slightly older drivers aged 21-25 years have twice the risk, but this increases to almost three times between 2am and 5am.

"Inexperienced driving, a cavalier attitude to life, and a night-time social life involving alcohol and driving too fast, are combining to kill and maim young people and other road users every night of the week," says Andrew Howard, the AA Trust's head of road safety.

Young women are much less of a risk, and tend to be more careful than young men. Those aged between 17 and 20 years have between two and three times the risk of all women, whatever the time of day.

Researchers found that few women tend to drive home from nightclubs late at night, mainly because they tended to be passengers in cars driven by young men.

For full press release go to: http://www.aatrust.com/index.asp?pageid=31&newsid=65

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