NEWLY qualified motorists could be banned from driving alone and at night for up to two years under government plans to cut the number of road accidents.

An expert group on road safety is also expected to recommend a total ban on alcohol for new drivers.

Under the scheme, which could be piloted in Scotland, novice drivers would be banned from driving between 11pm and 5am and would have to be accompanied by a fully qualified driver aged over 22 at other times.

Under the scheme, learner drivers would have to pass a theory test and initial driving test before being granted a provisional licence. After the two-year provisional period, they would take a second driving test for a full licence.

Professor Steve Stradling, professor of transport psychology at Napier University and a member of the government’s expert group, said the graduate licence system (GLS) was necessary to curb the growing number of accidents involving young, newly qualified drivers.

Similar schemes have already cut the number of road deaths involving young people in America, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden.

“In all countries that have graduated driving licences, the number of crashes involving young novice motorists has fallen significantly,” he said.

“Learner drivers don’t have serious crashes, they hit gate posts and clip stationary vehicles, but as soon as newly qualified drivers are let loose, their accident rate zooms up.

“Graduated driver licensing systems are an attempt to manage that high-risk period, and decrease exposure to situations where novice drivers are most vulnerable — night driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with friends the same age.

“There are a number of restrictions that have been found to be effective — a long learning phase with accompanied driving, no night driving and an alcohol prohibition during the whole restricted period.”

Car crashes are the biggest killer of 17- to 24-year-olds and newly qualified drivers are at greatest risk. Among 17- to 22-year-olds, 10 people per 1,000 are involved in a car accidents, compared with three per 1,000 among the over-sixties.

One in eight driver licences are held by under-25s, but more than a quarter of drivers who die are in this age group, according to figures from the Driving Standards Agency and Department for Transport. Last year 282 people died in car accidents in Scotland and 2,316 were seriously injured.

Times Recommends

• Long hours drive lawyers to drugs
• Darling to resist blanket savings guarantee
• £3m appeal to save Vanbrugh's Baroque gem