LISTEN: Highland MSP Pushes For Young Driver Safety Pilot

Young drivers could be banned from booze before getting behind the wheel and forced to display "P" plates for six months after passing their test.

Those are just some of the options being discussed at Westminster today - as Highland MSP David Stewart pushes for a new safety scheme to be trialled in the North:

He's making the call as new stats show 12 per cent of all road accidents in Scotland are caused by young drivers.

Acting in his capacity as Scottish Labour’s Transport Spokesman David Stewart will travel to London today to meet with Andrew Jones, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport and Lilian Greenwood, MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, to discuss his proposed graduated licence scheme (GDL).

Speaking this morning, David Stewart said: “12.5%of all road collisions in Scotland involve a young person aged between 17 and 19 years. If a form of graduated licence was introduced we could save 45 lives and reduce casualties by 299 each year.

“In the Highlands and Grampian areas 15.7% of all collisions involve a driver falling into the age bracket highlighted. If there was a graduated licence scheme introduced then we could reduce the casualties in this area by 64 and prevent up to 13 fatalities.

“I want our young people to be mobile, but I want them to be mobile safely and that is why I am engaging with young people across the Highlands & Islands and beyond. My proposals are really not going to be restrictive as some imagine. I am asking now for all new drivers to display a ‘P’ plate for the first six months after they pass their test. I am looking for as near zero an alcohol level as possible and a restriction on the number of other young persons that can be carried.

“I am hoping that the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport will give me a fair hearing and our meeting will be positive.”

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