The agency runs Britain's driving tests, and it wants to make them harder. Not, you understand, because it is run by sadists, but because they want to save lives. Improve drivers' hazard perception and casualties will fall, the agency believes. Hazard perception is the skill to identify, as soon as possible, situations that might require avoiding action, such as changing speed or direction. It is something most motorists develop after they have passed their test and are driving regularly.
Inexperience shows in the accident statistics.
Young drivers between 17 and 21 are involved in 14 per cent of injury accidents, although they make up only seven per cent of licence holders. Research has shown that new drivers take up to two seconds longer to recognise hazardous situations than more experienced drivers. So training them to be more observant before they get their licence makes sense. That is where the hazard perception test comes in. It will be introduced late next year and taken at the same time as the theory test, introduced in January 2000.