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ONE IN FIVE young male drivers has raced another motorist on the roads, according to a new survey from the Road Safety Authority.
The report also outlined that drivers aged between 17 and 24 are five times more likely to be killed on Irish roads than other motorists.
The figures have been disclosed by the RSA at the launch of Irish Road Safety Week, which will see events taking place in Dublin Castle until Friday.
At the lecture today, Dr Kiran Sarma, Chartered Psychologist and Lecturer in Psychology at NUI Galway, revealed that 5,678 road-users aged between 17 and 24 years old have been killed or seriously injured on Irish roads between 1997 and 2009. The deaths represented 28 per cent of all road deaths for that period, with more than one third (35 per cent) of these fatalities taking place place between midnight and 5am.
The research presented also showed that in fatal collisions where excessive speed was cited as a contributory factor, half of all drivers responsible were males aged 17 to 24 years old. Furthermore, 2 in 5 of all passengers aged 17 to 24 who were killed on the road were in a car being driven by a 17 to 24 year old male driver.
Sarma, who conducted the survey, said that the risky driving behavior of many young males was linked to positive attitudes towards speeding as well as a higher prevalence of particular personality traits – such as impulsiveness and excitement-seeking.
He said the research, which aimed to understand the psychology of young male drivers, could help to inform the way authorities respond to reckless driving behaviours. “The research would suggest that addressing speeding attitudes is important but that deeper psychological factors are also linked to dangerous driving on our roads,” he said.
Sarma’s research linked risky driving with condoning attitudes of friends and family, a greater tendency to become angry with other motorists and the belief that a driver should always be ‘in control’ of the car – even in challenging conditions. Young male drivers who reported feeling that their car was an extension of their identity were also more likely to engage in risking driving habits.
Professor Andrew Tolmie from the Institute of Education, University of London, said that attitudes towards driving were formed very early on in a child’s life and that family and peer influence was critical in forming attitudes and behaviours.
“Becoming a driver is something that starts in childhood – as soon as children become aware that this is something that adults do,” he said. “It becomes a real aspirational focus during adolescence, as teenagers begin to imagine themselves having the freedom that driving brings”.
Tolmie suggested the introduction of a “pre-driver period”, which would aim to give young people an opportunity to form positive attitudes to driving.
Noel Brett, Chief Executive, Road Safety Authority pointed out that the 5,678 young road-users “with their lives ahead of them” who had been killed in a 12-year period on Irish roads was roughly the same as the population of Westport in Co Mayo. “When you think of it in those terms,” he said, “We are reminded of how needless this loss of life is.”
“But it’s also important to say that not all young drivers are risky or dangerous drivers,” he added. “Today’s lecture has shown how important it is to support our younger road-users in forming positive attitudes to road safety as early as possible”.
So far this year, 145 people have lost their lives on Irish roads, which a reduction of 15 on the same period last year.
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What are the figures for female drivers who road race?
Most of them can’t drive never mind race.
where is the proof ? no one asked me or any of my mates ?
That’s cause you were going too fast to stop! Tut tut, hooligans.
Picking on young drivers once again I see, they fail to mention the amount of “older generation” who think its perfectly fine to drink and drive or who think indicators are optional or who can’t use a motorway or a roundabout, come out with me on the roads and see how many older folks try to race me away from the lights.
If this is the same “researcher” that came on to a local car forum to ask for help in conducting a survey, its so completely flawed, it makes no sense…..
Thank you just about the leave a similiar comment!
Update the driving test make it more rounded and also ensure that older drivers know the rules of the road/speed liimits and stop going on!!!
Well said. As a young male I realise that we are statistically the most dangerous on the road, but demonising us and making it seem as though young men are the only bad drivers is just untrue.
I’ve never seen anyone pulled over for bad driving, but anytime there’s a Garda checkpoint they seem to only target young men.
to be honest contradicty to common belief the rudest and most inclined to take risk drivers are not the young lads…they are actually drivers in their 40s -50s …its normally people od this age that ride the ass of your car, overtake and are in general impatient with learner drivers in particular
Don’t believe it …. Pure propaganda
I love a good race.
can The Journal assist us here i wonder? any chance you can survey respondents to see who has ever lost control of a car while driving – and whether they are male / female / young / old?
it’s not just young male drivers who speed, 90% of the ones that i observe speeding , ignoring roadsigns,dangeous overtaking using a phone while driving etc are in the 35- 50 age group and usually driving audi’s, b.m.w’s or mercs, yes it the salesman/ office exec class that are a bigger pest on the road, they think because the are middle managment at the office that they can bully people on the road too, i seen these idiots overtake on the approach to a hill, on solid white lines, on bends on single lane roads, in fact anywhere and everywhere, they are always on the phone or glancing down at the laptop on the passenger seat, don’t have a clue as to how to use a roundabout ,so just barge their way through, compleatly ignore changing traffic lights, box juntions,or parking restrictions i.e. double parking while they nip into the shop for a newspaper, these are a far more common site on our roads than actuall racing, combined with the amount of elderly people who can barly walk or see clearly but still think their safe to drive because they ‘only go to town 1 or 2 a week’ these people would have great difficulty in being able to apply sufficiant pressure to a brake pedle in an emergancy ,even if they could react quickly enough, surly there should be stricter controls on older people driving than we have now. i am by the way just turned 50 yrs old and have been driving since passing my test 3 months after my 17 birthday (in the u.k.) hold a clean driving licence and an ex motercyclest.
What a ridiculous post on so many levels. Not to mention the spelling age of a nine year old.
yeah from this reply i guess you work in sales.
Oh Jesus, it’s like Ulysses, but without spellcheck.
3 out of 9 statistics are made up on the spot.
Surely the ‘news’ story is that almost all young male drivers DON’T race on the roads??
Agreed. 80% of young male drivers don’t race.
If it’s only one in five then who are they racing against? ;-)
em. there’s more than 5 people on the road…. that’s 2 in 10 etc etc
Can’t deny the stat that young males drivers have a higher risk of been killed in a crash. What do you put this down too.
A well know fact down the country years ago groups of males used to all drive to the pub on a fri/sat night and then race to the nearest disco or nightclub , the last one there having to buy the first 3 rounds
Your from Cavan I take it!
So basically we have young drivers blaming middle aged drivers, middle aged drivers blaming older drivers, older driver blaming young driver. Let’s face it we all know good and bad drivers in all categories.
Ok quiz time.
It’s pissing raining out. Roads are slippy. Which would you prefer driving you at 120km on a motorway. The 21 year old in the modified car or the 45 year old driving an Audi.
Answer to follow.
depends, my “modified” car would have better brakes and tyres then an audi so I would stop in a much shorter distance than the audi. Just to be clear, I am no “boy racer” either, bit old for that
neither , i would not feel at all safe being driven at 120kph in wet conditions, i was taught to drive at a speed that takes into account the road conditions and that would be a maximum of 80kph in such awfull weather.
gold star to eric.
simon i just threw in the modified car reference as an example. didn mean any disrespect
plus you would find that real petrol heads who modify cars would tend to look at safety first before other aspects of modifying, where as the “boy racers” just drive fast and way beyond the means of themselves and their car….
I suspect Simon that a lot of the people commenting here wouldn’t know their ASR from their EBFD and so they just believe the ‘statistics’ because it suits them. It’s a convenient distraction from the elephant in the room when road safety is being discussed in this country. I’ll be more impressed when I see a story about how many of the people who received driving licences during the ‘amnesty’ in the 70s have been involved in an accident or received a ticket or penalty points. Those drivers, many of whom had just applied for their driving test were given a full licence without ever having sat any formal driving test at all. Those people are all in their 50s & 60s now, oblivious to their horrible habits & ignorant of the true rules of the road, but yet are the same people most critical of younger drivers who they all view as hooligans. In my 14 years driving experience it is that age group who are the most unpredictable, inappropriately slow, oblivious to hazards, ignorant of stopping distances, unaware of the physics at play in the control of a car, blind to their own inadequacies and the most arrogant of all road users because they believe that both their age and experience makes them safer than you or I. I’m driving since 1997, I’ve had 8 cars, I’ve never had or been involved in an accident, I’ve never had a speeding ticket & I have a clean licence since it was issued. At 33, based on these statistics, it looks like that’s some class of miracle since I’ve now left my most dangerous years. Does this mean I can now become a smug git & buy an Audi/BMW/Mercedes-Benz to run other road users into the ditches?
Why don’t they make low speed motorcars???
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