Poots consider curfew for new Northern Ireland drivers

The environment minister, Edwin Poorts, is considering a night time curfew for newly qualified drivers. This way he wants to prevent road deaths. Northern Ireland has had a poor road safety record, significantly above the the rest of the UK. In 2009 there were 115 deaths from which 24 were pedestrians, 46 were drivers, 29 were passengers and 16 were motorcyclists which is significantly higher number than in the rest of the UK. He is also thinking about restricting the number of passengers a new driver can take along. However the minister first wants to consult the public on these issues.


Source:

BBC News
Monday, 4 January 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8439255.stm


Reaction: I think it is a good idea but also a quite complicated idea and I think newly drivers will not be to happy about it. If you want to introduce a night time curfew it you will have to be supervise it too. In summer and winter the times will probably be different and when is somebody a newly driver. Then you have the issue about the restricted number of passengers. I think that is even more complicated. Especially newly/young driver often drive with more passengers because their friend don't own a car or a license. If newly drivers can not take the people they want they will need another car which is bad for the environment.