Crash victim's family wants young driver rethink

The family of a 17-year-old girl who died in a crash is calling for restrictions to be placed on new drivers.

Emily Challen was killed instantly when a car driven by her friend crashed into a stationary lorry.

Her mother Jenny, from Normanton, near Bottesford in Leicestershire, met MPs last week to push for graduated driving licences to be introduced in the UK.

She said she would like to see restrictions placed on young drivers carrying passengers for at least a year after they pass their test.

Emily was one of three passengers in a car heading to school, in February 2013, when it hit a lorry that had stopped on a slip road on the A1 at Long Bennington in Lincolnshire.

Mrs Challen said the 18-year-old driver, who later pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving, had been distracted and failed to see the lorry.

"There were four of them in the car," said Mrs Challen.

"They were all friends - good girls, just going to school, but just a moment of lost attention was fatal for Emily."

The other passengers were not seriously hurt.

Graduated driving licences already exist in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, some US states, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France and Northern Ireland.

Mrs Challen told the BBC she believed introducing them in the UK could save hundreds of young lives.

"What I'd like to see is a restriction on young drivers carrying passengers for at least six months or a year after they pass their tests," she said.

"It's difficult for young people who are new to driving. It takes a lot of concentration.

"Graduated driving licences would allow new drivers to build up their experience on the roads without distractions in their car.

"I do believe if they were in place at the time, Emily would still be alive."

The Department for Transport (DfT) has said it is not considering implementing graduated driving licences.

Mrs Challen said: "Unfortunately they are not on board and they say the focus will be on educating young drivers. Emily and her friends had been educated.

"They were all sensible girls and they were shown quite a graphic video of a crash [at school] the week before she was killed. I remember her saying how shocked she was, and her friends, but it didn't prevent the accident.

"You can't teach experience."

Emily's younger sister Harriet, 26, who joined her mother at the meeting with MPs, said she restricted herself from driving with passengers after she passed her driving test aged 17.

"We put our own version of a graduated driving licence in," she said. "So I didn't carry passengers for the first year I drove and I self-enforced some of those restrictions we would see."

Her mother said: "If we can't get a change in the law, then we'd like to see more new drivers doing what Harriet did and choosing not to drive passengers until they have more experience.

"She felt it was important for her safety after what happened to Emily.

"There are now more than 200 families in our group, Forget Me Not Families Uniting, and we will keep pushing because we know this will save lives."

A DfT spokesperson added: "Every death on our roads is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the families of everyone who has lost a loved one in this way.

"Whilst we are not considering graduated driving licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads.

"We are determined to tackle this, including through our THINK! campaign, which has a focus on men aged 17 to 24 as they are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than other drivers."

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