TWO ideas have been put forward this week to make the country’s roads safer and both require serious consideration by the Government.

Firstly, on Monday, the AA repeated its call for preventing drivers under 21 for carrying passengers of a similar age for six months after they had passed their test, allowing them to build up driving experience without any teenage temptations on board.

The AA says this will save 58 lives a year and avoid 934 serious injuries a year, and Department for Transport figures show that last year, 290 people were killed and 4,669 were seriously injured in crashes involving at least one driver aged 17 to 24.

Insurance companies accept that young drivers are a greater risk by hiking their premiums. It is time the licensing authority tried to reduce that risk by introducing the “graduated licence”.

Secondly, a Fatal Accident Inquiry in Scotland yesterday recommended that all drivers over 80 should take a cognitive test before their licence is renewed. This follows a 91-year-old with undiagnosed dementia veering off the road in Edinburgh and crashing into a shop, killing a three-year-old.

At the moment, people over 70 self-certify that they are fit to drive, but what if they don’t recognise their decline or if they can’t bring themselves to acknowledge it? The latter is quite understandable because surrendering your driving licence, which has so many connotations about personal freedom and fitness, must be one of the most difficult decisions of old age.

And one of the most important.

Our roads would be safer if there was more consideration of who was on them at both ends of the age scale.