Young drivers face the risk of severe injury even in low speed collisions

Young drivers are more likely to be invloved in a car accident than more experineced drivers according to a recent report.

One out of every five young drivers suffers a crash within their first year of driving, and young drivers are 10 times more likely to be involved in a serious collision than experienced drivers.

These figures explain why young driver car insurance is so expensive for most new drivers. Whilst many people believe, all drivers under the age of 21 years old are ‘boy racers’ who end up in road incidents because they are driving too fast, a recent experiment has shown that you do not have to be driving at ridiculous speeds to end up in a serious accident.

Drivers rarely realise the devastation that can be caused from a low speed collision, so may relax their senses if they are travelling slowly down a road.

For example, a motorbike that is travelling at 60kph (37mph) and crashes head on with a car coming from the opposite direction at 30 kph (18mph) will unseat its rider and pillion passenger, launching them into the support pillar of the car and leaving the motorcyclist and companion with severe injuries from the impact.

The passenger even faces the possibility of being thrown over the car completely on to the road and into the path of oncoming traffic. The driver of the car will not walk away without injury either and both vehicles are likely to be write-offs.

These are the findings from test conducted into low speed collisions and make for scary reading. Another experiment showed that the chances of surviving a collision with a seemingly harmless farmyard trailer are virtually none existent.

A car travelling at just 70kph (43mph) that crashes into the back of a trailer being pulled by a tractor that is turning into a field would result in having the bonnet of the vehicle pass underneath the trailer. The roof would be ripped off toward the back of the car, leaving it and its passengers wedged under the trailer. Despite the car being fitted with seatbelts and airbags and these pieces of safety equipment being used at the time, those travelling in the vehicle would have virtually no chance of survival.

25/06/2009 12:02:41