Brussels wants to advance to 17 years the age at which you can get a license to drive cars and trucks. The measure is already applied in some European countries, but would it be well received in Spain? Traffic managers, road safety experts, victims' associations and driving schools respond.
The European Commission proposal establishes certain rules: young people must drive accompanied by a driver, over 25 years old and with a 5-year permit, until reaching the age of majority, and zero tolerance for alcohol for two years.
The data confirms that the age at which Spaniards obtain their driving license is being delayed. Last year, the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) processed 278,570 class B licenses (cars and vans) to young people between the ages of 18 and 20 out of a total of 594,960 issued.
In addition, of the 5,129 C1 permits (vehicles from 3,500 to 7,500 kilos maximum) issued, 95 were for young people between 18 and 20 years of age; and of the 34,346 in class C that accredits for driving trucks without a weight limit, 33 corresponded to people of that age group.
With few exceptions, in Spain the C card can only be obtained after the age of 21, while for the C1 only the age of majority is required.
The European Commission has sent its proposal to modify the driving license directive to countries, one of whose main objectives is to promote road safety in younger drivers, but also to make the transport of goods more attractive for them, without compromising road safety.
Accompanied driving is a measure that has been working successfully in many European Union countries, such as France, the DGT deputy director of training, María José Aparicio, told EFE.
As he explains, this means that by the time a young person obtains a permit and is faced with driving alone, they have previous driving experience accompanied by a tutor who meets a series of requirements.
Spain, in principle, agrees with the measure despite the fact that, as Aparicio recalls, it is a country without experience in accompanied driving. "We will have to assess it carefully when the directive that will regulate how and under what conditions it will be implemented," he says.
The director of Prevention and Road Safety at Fundación Mapfre, Jesús Monclús, believes that if a novice 18-year-old driver can hit the road almost without restrictions after a learning period, sometimes lasting a few weeks, "a more progressive access, with a greater number of kilometers of experience and accompanied by a responsible tutor, should be a good idea".
The foundation proposes that accompanying adults attend some type of seminar to validate their suitability and provide them with the skills to properly perform such an important role. In addition, Monclús stresses to EFE the importance of the training of "trainee-drivers" including their participation in awareness modules where they interact with traffic victims, learn first aid and take bike tours to empathize with the most vulnerable users. .
From the RACE Foundation, its mobility and road safety spokesperson Nuria Alonso, is "satisfied" with a measure that "is going to contribute", since it implies introducing young people to safe mobility beforehand and making them participants in the responsibility that it entails drive with a vehicle.
"The sooner we introduce young people to road safety, the better," says Alonso, who stresses that training is a tool that also helps them as users of scooters and bicycles that they now use "without any knowledge base."
Alonso also appreciates that they are allowed to obtain the C permit in order to access certain professions that "right now we are in need of".
If the measure works in other countries it can also work here. In the opinion of the president of the Association for the Study of Spinal Cord Injury (Aesleme), Mar Cogollos, who calls for "complete face-to-face training", in which not only the regulatory part is worked on, but also attitudes, risk perception , so that they understand what they and others are at stake.
Cogollos also emphasizes the importance of choosing the guardian well and supervision and control that prevents 17-year-old drivers from being tempted to drive unaccompanied. In this he believes that parents should be very attentive.
To the president of the DIA accident victims association, Paco Canes, the initiative, in principle, seems good, but he does not see it as a "so necessary" measure, so "if we remained in the same situation we are in now nothing would happen."
He does not believe that it will benefit road safety "taking into account that there is a peak in accidents in the group of drivers up to 25 years of age." "If we lower the age to be able to start driving, we are assuming an unnecessary risk that could lead to an upturn in accidents in that age group as the number of drivers increases," he believes.
Enrique Lorca, president of the National Confederation of Driving Schools (CNAE), is in favor of the measure as long as good training is guaranteed by teachers accredited by the DGT, although he values the progressive and supervised incorporation into circulation.
Despite the deficit of traffic training teachers, an issue on which they are working with the DGT and which could be solved shortly, Lorca assures that the driving schools would have the capacity to absorb the increased demand that could arise from the measure, although he does not believe that either there would be "an avalanche".
For his part, the president of the National Association of Driving Schools (ANAES), Álvaro Llamas, asks the administrations for "prudence" and that the issue be studied with "great caution", due to the consequences it may have for road safety.
