WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2007

MR PAUL SILVERWOOD, MR NEIL GREIG, MR ANDREW HOWARD AND MR EDMUND KING

  Q116  Chairman: Good afternoon, gentlemen. I should explain that there will be a division in a couple of moments, so if we could just get your names on to the record first.

  Mr King: Edmund King, I am Executive Director of the RAC Foundation.

  Mr Howard: I am Andrew Howard, I am now Head of Road Safety for the AA but I wrote the evidence when I was Head of Road Safety for the AA Motoring Trust.

  Mr Greig: I am Neil Greig, I am Assistant Director of the IAM—Institute of Advanced Motorists—Motoring Trust.

  Mr Silverwood: I am Paul Silverwood, President of the Under 17 Car Club.

  Q117  Chairman: Thank you very much. You do remember the rules, that you will have to speak up in this room because we want to record everything that you say. Did anybody have anything they wanted to say before we began?

  Mr Greig: If I could just clarify what Andrew Howard has said. He is with the AA just now. The AA Motoring Trust gave evidence to you in December and the AA Motoring Trust no longer exists, its evidence is now taken over by the IAM Motoring Trust. In terms of the evidence the two organisations are interchangeable, the IAM Motoring Trust has taken over the work of the AA Motoring Trust in this particular respect.

  Q118  Chairman: That is very helpful, it is good to have it recorded. Mr King?

  Mr King: Can I just make a couple of general comments on the subject you are considering, which I think is absolutely vital given the fact that 1,077 fatalities in 2005 involved a driver between the ages of 17 and 25. This is a very complex area, as the Committee knows, and I think part of the solution will be a package. In general we favour trying to educate young drivers and trying to change attitudes at an earlier stage, particularly looking at things like the school curriculum. In Scotland they have a course, the Crash Magnets, that is carried out in schools and it tries to influence 14 to 17 or 18 year-olds before they get behind the wheel of a car. We have to start using new methods to get through to young drivers. We are involved with the FIA Foundation in a campaign called Make Roads Safe and we are using new methods to try and influence young drivers involving bands. An indie band, Dirty Pretty Things—

  Q119  Chairman: Bands? Music bands?

  Mr King: Music bands, yes. There is an indie band called Dirty Pretty Things who would not be thought of as regular role models but after one of their concerts in Ipswich last year three young drivers actually died. It was one of those cases with a lot of young drivers in the car. They have become involved in this campaign. Michael Schumacher is involved in this campaign. It is getting different types of people who perhaps could have more influence on young drivers than government. Looking at other things, plays in schools that raise some of the issues and dangers, using fire-fighters, using messages in soap operas, and there was one in Eastenders about text messaging or drink-driving, et cetera. Much of what we are talking about today is attitudes and it is very difficult to legislate to change attitudes. You can educate to change attitudes. The other point about young drivers is we should not get away from the basics of road safety. A third of the people who are dying out there who are car occupants do not have seat belts. This is not about graduated training, this is about basics, strapping up before you go. 17% of road deaths are still drink-driving and a third of drink-drive accidents are still drivers under 25. Again, these are basic road safety messages that we thought we had got right 10 or 15 years ago, but obviously we have not. I do not think we should be too distracted by looking at some of the other things until we address the basics. To address the basics, Chairman, as your Committee has rightly said before, we need a greater police presence out there to actually be an influence on drink-driving and to enforce the law.