Young drivers’ Road Risk and Rurality

Road Safety Analysis (RSA) was approached to explore the issue of young drivers and their crash risk. Young and inexperienced drivers are over-represented within collision statistics globally and are often the focus of road safety interventions.

It was hypothesised that young drivers who live in rural areas are more at risk of collisioninvolvement than their urban cousins. This hypothesis was based on studies which have identified common factors within young driver collisions; many of these factors centre on rural driving.

The research indicates that the reasons for young rural drivers’ increased road risk could lie with the combination of inexperience and increased exposure to risk, through higher mileage and the types of road on which they drive.

Further research to explore common factors within young driver collisions should be undertaken to try to shed further light on this issue. It would be useful to look at home rurality against blood alcohol levels, contributory factors, vehicle manoeuvres, other vehicles involved, and to see if there are regional differences in collision involvement.

This research implies that there is a pressing need to address the increased risk that young drivers in rural areas are exposed to. It could signal that increased driver training and testing on rural roads is needed for the young and inexperienced. It also highlights the need to consider how younger driver mileage rates might be reduced, especially at times when risks are known to be elevated such as night-time hours.