‘Graduate licence could reduce road deaths’

A MAN from Henley whose younger brother died in a double fatal car crash is in favour of Graduate Driving Licences.

Sammy Phillips was in the passenger seat when the BMW he was riding in hit trees in Bix in February 2023. He was 19.

The driver was more than three times over the legal alcohol limit and was estimated to be driving between 70 and 100mph. Jamie Morris, 27, believes a “cultural change” is needed to reduce the number of young male drivers, aged 17 to 24, killed or injured on the roads.

They are four times more likely to be involved in accidents compared with drivers aged 25 or over, according to government statistics.

Mr Morris said: “Introducing a graduate licence, just like when compulsory seatbelts were introduced, is about setting a cultural change.

“It’s about education, awareness and helping young drivers through a period in their life where they’re being exposed to driving for the first time, when they have a huge social life.

“Lots of young people would feel that they are having their freedom taken away from them but I think the message from road safety experts is that it’s not and it would assist young men through difficult times in their lives.”

The licence, similar to those in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, could restrict the number of passengers young drivers are able to carry, impose a night-time driving restriction between 11pm and 4am and lower the blood alcohol limit to 20mg/100ml during the first six months.

Following a debate in parliament in January, the Government confirmed it will not introduce graduate driving licences but it will announce its new road safety strategy this autumn, the first in more than a decade.

In March 2024, Mr Morris released the BBC documentary film, Drive Fast Die Young, to document his journey to understand why young males take more risks than other age groups.

He said: “I used to have dreams about being in the car. I pictured myself there, trying to think about what happened and why. I was stuck with questions and no answers.

“Doing the documentary was good for me because I could learn the why from experts to get it out of my head.

“I hoped the documentary would at least make a difference to one person. It was meant to be educational — it wasn’t meant to be easy. It was about showing young people what will happen if they flip a coin with their lives and take a risk.”

In the documentary, he spoke with experts who agreed there should be changes in the law and that the introduction of the licence could help prevent between 20 and 40 per cent of collisions.

This included Jo Shiner, chief constable of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, whose dad was killed by another driver on the road; Dr Elizabeth Box, the head of research at the RAC Foundation; and Dr Shaun Helman, a cognitive psychologist at the Transport Research Laboratory. He said: “In the case of Sammy, you can’t really understand whether it would have made a difference because they would have been above that age threshold.

“But, from the experts I spoke to, what they say is that it’s a model being used in other countries which reduces deaths and should be in place.”

Thames Valley Police will hold its Road Death Memorial Service at St Mary’s Church in Thame on Sunday, November 16 from 2.30pm to 4pm.

The memorial will take place on the day after the second anniversary of the completion of the boys’ inquest and will be the third Mr Morris and his mum, Justine, have attended.

He added: “There’s a lot of different nuances. There are so many families that are in difficult and different situations where they are still fighting for justice or closure, so going to the memorial allows families to connect with each other to understand their situations.”