The EU needs to make a U-turn on teenagers driving lorries

Imagine driving a car along a rural road at night with your kids asleep in the back. Conditions are a little foggy, and visibility is reduced. 

All of a sudden, a 40-tonne articulated lorry is coming towards you from the opposite direction. 

As it approaches, only a dotted white line on the road separates you and your family from oblivion. 

Who do you want behind the wheel of that lorry? A driver with several years of experience of driving in such conditions? 

How about a teenager, straight out of school?

Road industry lobbying wants teens at the wheel

Since 2006, the European Union has sensibly recommended a minimum age of 21 for lorry drivers, and 24 for bus drivers. 

But in recent years, the road transport industry has been pushing to lower these minimums as a cheap way of solving the recruitment crisis in the sector. 

Offering better conditions, more reasonable driving and rest times and less time away from home are out — hiring school leavers is in.

Road industry lobbying has worked. With the EU’s blessing, a number of member states have lowered the minimum age — usually to 18 for lorry drivers — as long as the youngsters have completed additional professional training in addition to the required practical and theory tests.

But the icing on the cake for the transport sector would be if all member states were required to do this, and teenagers could drive lorries across the continent. 

The industry wants to go further still, and allow 16 and 17-year-olds to begin accompanied driving of lorries, to begin driving solo as soon as they hit 18.

Last March, the European Commission gave in to the pressure and published a proposed revision of rules on driving licences that would require member states to offer an accompanied driving scheme enabling 17-year-olds to drive a lorry. And in December, the European Parliament’s transport committee supported the move.

The European Commission estimates that 13,500 17-year-olds could start driving lorries as a result. 

You would think there would be a sound scientific basis for this proposed change. There isn’t.

The industry declares that it would have no impact on road safety. It has provided no evidence or data to support that opinion.

Stats on young lorry drivers are extremely worrying

Worse yet, the European Commission has also failed to investigate this question properly. 

The reasoning for the change given in the official impact assessment is based on the fact that an accompanied driving scheme for 17-year-old car drivers in Germany showed positive results for road safety.

This is not good enough. The job of a professional lorry driver is vastly different to occasional car use. And when a lorry crashes, the devastation caused can be absolutely catastrophic. 

A teenager who caused such a crash would live with the consequences for decades. The families of the victims would never get over their grief.

At ETSC we have looked at the available data on teenage lorry drivers and it is extremely worrying. 

Research by the German Insurance Association (GDV) shows that HGV drivers aged 18-20 caused a much higher number of collisions resulting in injury, in relation to the number of licences registered for that age group when compared to all other HGV driver age groups. 

ETSC has also analysed data from Finland and Poland — other countries that allow younger lorry drivers and it shows the same thing.

A year of accompanied lorry driving is better than nothing. But it is unlikely to reverse the damage that is being done by massively expanding the number of lorry drivers under the age of 21. 

The idea must be stopped in its tracks

The science shows that inexperience is only one of multiple factors affecting young drivers.

Young people undergo significant biological and social changes between the ages of 15 and 25. Brain development is ongoing throughout this period and is not complete until well into the twenties.

Consequently, when young people are learning to drive, their cognitive abilities are still not completely developed. 

This affects their perception of, and attitude towards, risk. Cognitive development during puberty can lead to greater emotional instability and behaviour that is more assertive. 

Thus, as road users, young people tend to display risky behaviours and have a diminished appreciation of the hazards they face. 

Biological research shows that, at the age of 18, areas of the human brain responsible for the integration of information and impulse control are still developing.

Encouraging an additional 13,500 teenagers to start driving lorries would be a vast and dangerous experiment, leading to many more of the highest-risk group of drivers behind the wheel of vehicles that cause the most devastation when crashed.

Next month the European Parliament’s plenary session may decide the fate of this proposal. 

We hope that MEPs will reflect on the implications of what would be a serious step backwards for road safety in Europe. Teenagers driving lorries is an idea that must be stopped in its tracks. 

Antonio Avenoso is Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council.

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