According to recent findings by the European Transport Safety Council, Britain is one of the safest countries in Europe for driving. A review of the findings shows that the UK has the 4^th lowest number of road casualties per million inhabitants.

Driving Safety in the EU

Out of the 32 countries analysed only 9 countries showed a reduction in their number of road fatalities. In fact, the EU actually had an overall increase in the total number of road fatalities.  Some of top reasons for road fatalities include:

• Speeding
• Drink driving
• Distracted driving
• Not using appropriate safety measures e.g. seat belts

Although the UK saw a decrease in its road deaths it wasn't a substantial decrease. According to the RAC, the UK had 755 car related road fatalities in 2015 (a 5 percent decrease on the year before). To highlight the difference, Finland had a 15% decrease. So, it begs the question: Why aren’t we doing as well?

Driving Safety in the UK

In 2010 the UK traffic enforcement services had a drop in employment, a 27% drop. As a result, fewer preventative measures have been conducted to curb dangerous driving; fewer speeding tickets have been issued and fewer stops are being made for suspected drink drivers. In comparison, countries like Finland and the Netherlands have seen an increase in the number of speeding tickets issued and stops conducted. These highly important preventative measures need to be emphasised and carried out more frequently. Perhaps if this is done, we can bring our number of road deaths to their lowest ever by next year.

How Can Young Drivers Stay Safe?

A way young drivers can help out is by looking to take out a telematics insurance policy after they pass. As part of the British Insurance Brokers Association's (BIBA) plea to the government to remove the Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) from Telematics policies, they have revealed that Telematics policies have seen a 40% drop in crash risk for new drivers. By taking out a telematics policy a young driver is encouraged to drive more safely, as it could help them reduce their insurance premium at renewal.  InsureLearnerDriver's sister site Safely Insured offers such a policy - Click Here to view the policy option for yourself. If this added incentive was present for more young drivers, we could see our fatality rates rival even Finland!