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Road Safety

I congratulate the hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) on securing this debate. It is the second time that we have debated this particular issue in Westminster Hall this year, which indicates the importance that our constituents attach to it. I join the hon. Gentleman in congratulating the Minister and the Government on the part that they have played in reducing the grim statistics on road deaths. We have come a long way, but there is still further distance to go, as I am sure we all agree. Furthermore, people expect us to work together as Members of Parliament to try to address this particular problem; it is not an issue for party political bickering. Last Tuesday, the sixth form of Malton comprehensive school in Scarborough closed for the day. The reason was that all the sixth formers were attending the funeral of Tom Warrington, who was 18 and had been a pupil at the school. At 7.40 am on Sunday 29 June, on the road between Goathland and Beck Hole in my constituency, his red Renault Clio left the road and hit a tree. He was killed and his passenger, another young man, was airlifted to James Cook university hospital in Teesside after sustaining serious injuries. Tom used to live in my village. He was always known as a daredevil on his bicycle. My wife told me this morning that she could remember him cycling off the roof of the village hall in our village. He knew no fear. He was just starting out on life's big adventure, only to have his young life snuffed out. My son attended Tom's funeral, along with many friends, and I think it brought home to them in a unique way just what the risks are of driving when speed is perhaps excessive or perhaps the road conditions are unexpected, or when something else has gone wrong. Only the other month, my next door neighbour's daughter wrote off her car; she is a young driver learning to drive. Another friend of Tom's who attended his funeral, and had previously bragged about rolling his Vauxhall Corsa, suddenly realised that it could have been him in the coffin. When we educate our children about the dangers on the road, we need to bring home to them this message—they need to be aware that a car is a very dangerous piece of equipment. Tom Warrington was just one statistic among many. We have heard other statistics from east Lancashire. We have heard about the accident near Melton Mowbray, on the A607, when six young people were killed at 2 o'clock in the morning. After that accident, the father of the driver was quoted on the BBC as saying:"““Kids of today like a bit of fun and excitement.””" Fun and excitement can often turn to tragedy. It is no consolation to know that we have some of the safest roads in Europe and that several factors have contributed to reducing the death toll on our roads. For example, car design is better, but of course young people tend to be in older cars that may not have air bags, or in smaller cars. I would certainly be reluctant to limit the size of car that young people can drive. I did not have my own car until I was 21. I drove our family car, a Land Rover, which had an engine larger than the size proposed by the hon. Member for Pendle as a limit for young people. If I could not have driven our Land Rover, I would have needed a car of my own and I would have done a lot more driving, including a lot more driving at night. We need to be careful in that regard. Furthermore, we need to bear in mind that there are many people whose work requires the use of a car, and if it is agricultural work, the vehicle needs to be a 4x4 and not a Ford Fiesta, which might have some trouble getting to the ewe lambing at the far end of the field. We have done a lot in terms of road design and road improvements, and I know that the Government are tackling both congestion and accident black spots. We are also looking at how driver training can be improved. I welcome the Government's consultation on that matter.