OPINION: New rules on driving licences could make road safety worse
Ellen Townsend, Policy Director
As a natural optimist, I don’t like to start the new year on a negative note. But having followed the discussions between EU Member States and the European Parliament on the new EU driving licence directive proposals over the last few months – I am genuinely concerned that Europe is about to unleash changes that will have far-reaching negative effects on road safety for years to come.
The legislation is complex and covers a wide range of areas. But our main concern is simple: Reducing the age at which you can drive any type of motor vehicle will increase the risks for drivers, their passengers, and other road users. At the current point in the negotiations, it is possible that the EU may end up allowing younger lorry drivers, younger bus drivers, and kids of 16 years of age to drive cars fitted with speed limiters.
How did we get here?
Let’s start with lorries. For years the recommended minimum age for driving a lorry in the EU has been 21. However in most Member States it is now possible to train from the age of 18 for a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) which permits driving a lorry. According to ETSC’s analysis of the available data from countries like Finland, Germany, and Poland (where you can already drive a lorry under certain conditions from age 18) – these young drivers (below 21) are much more likely to be involved in a crash. This should not be surprising as young people have much less experience driving on the roads, their brains are not yet fully mature, and they are more likely to take risks. They may have had additional professional training, but that is not enough to counteract the additional risks associated with youth and inexperience.
The European Commission has now proposed that 17-year-olds be allowed to begin accompanied driving in lorries. Worryingly, its impact assessment did not investigate whether this would be safe in the specific case of professional lorry driving – it based its view solely on evidence of accompanied driving schemes for cars in Germany – a totally different domain, and in just one of 27 EU Member States. Allowing 17-year-olds to start training will result in more and younger drivers qualifying to drive lorries soon after their 18th birthday. The outcome will be counted in the death and serious injury figures. At the very least Member States should demand that such a scheme should be optional for governments to introduce, and not mandatory as the Commission and the European Parliament want. Ideally, the recommended minimum age for lorry driving should be left as it is.
The minimum recommended age for driving a bus or coach in the EU is currently 24 – even higher than for a lorry. There is now the risk that this too will be reduced to just 18 – though with some limitations on how far they can be driven, and restrictions on international driving. But reducing the minimum age for bus drivers is also a mistake. Again the data show that younger drivers represent too high a risk. In the case of buses and coaches the cargo is also rather more precious. In this case Member States seem more resistant to the change. We hope they stick to their guns and leave the current minimum age as it is.
Cars for kids?
For years, Sweden has had an obscure category of vehicle known as an A-traktor which enables 15-year-olds to drive cars and pickups modified, if necessary, to have no more than two seats, and with top speed limited to 30 km/h.
In Finland, in 2020, the government launched a plan to allow 15-year-olds to drive smaller cars (up to 1500 kg) fitted with a speed limiter set at 60 km/h – but the European Commission blocked the proposal for so-called ‘light cars’.
Rather than outlawing these anomalies permanently, the European Commission decided to expand the concept to youngsters across the EU as part of a proposed change to the driving licence directive to allow 16-year-olds to obtain a B1 license, enabling them to drive any car weighing up to 2500 kg as long as a speed limiter is fitted that prevents the vehicle from accelerating above 45 km/h.
A-traktors in Sweden are not safe vehicles. They are often tampered with to achieve much higher speeds. When they do drive with a functioning speed limiter, they can cause dangerous situations when other vehicles try to overtake them on roads where overtaking is difficult and risky.
Expanding car driving to 16-year-olds across the EU will have negative consequences for health, the environment, and safety for years to come. Tampering with speed limiters is almost impossible to prevent and difficult to enforce with current technology. Cars for kids are another incomprehensible misstep.
Drink-driving limits for young drivers
There were one or two rays of light in the Commission’s original proposals. One was an EU-wide alcohol ban for young and novice drivers as part of a new “probationary period” rule. But even this modest proposal could face the chopping block thanks to Member States who actually support lower alcohol limits resisting the move because of ‘subsidiarity’ – i.e. they don’t want the Commission to set the rules. This is a small-minded view. A Europe-wide ban on young drivers drinking before driving was an opportunity to introduce a simple, easy-to-follow rule for youngsters holidaying away from home, that the majority of the public would welcome. A missed opportunity if ever there was one.
It’s not too late to improve the final deal on the driving licence directive. The Polish presidency wants an agreement by March. We hope there is still time to change minds, and save lives.