Next for Britain: Banning young drivers from carrying non-family passengers?

According to the Association of British Insurers, which submitted the proposals to the Department for Transport, one in eight drivers is under 25, but they account for one third of the number of people who die on the country’s roads.

It estimates that an 18-year old driver is three times more likely to be involved in a crash than a motorist 30 years older. In 2011, drivers between 17 and 19 were involved in 12,000 crashes of which more than half resulted in serious or fatal injuries.

“I read regular reports where three or four young people have been killed in a car and it’s a new driver and you wonder what happened,” Mr McLoughlin said.