MIDSOMER Norton’s MP has called for new measures to improve road safety for young people due to the “history of accidents” in the area.
Anna Sabine MP spoke about her ‘serious concerns’ during a recent Westminster Hall debate in which she referenced two sisters, 17 and 21, who were killed by a speeding driver on the A361 Frome Bypass.
Mrs Sabine (Liberal Democrats, Frome and East Somerset) said more measures are needed to improve safety on the “dangerous roads” on her constituency.
The calls come as she recognises the necessity of cars and driving in rural areas, and the crucial access to jobs and education driving gives to young people in villages across the Somer Valley.
Anna said: “I have some really serious concerns about (her teenage son’s) safety when he does start to drive. My constituency has a lot of A-roads, which are windy and fast, and often have junctions off to the side where drivers are trying to pull out onto the main road.
“We have a history of accidents in the local area, including a horrendous one in 2023 where two young sisters were killed by an oncoming vehicle.”
Thomas Lenthall, 40, was driving in excess of 100mph along the A361 Frome Bypass on July 25, 2003, when he collided with a VW Polo in which Madison, 21, and Liberty North, 17, were travelling. Both were killed instantly the day before Maddie was due to graduate.
Lenthall was jailed for 10 years.
Speaking of her campaign for new road safety measures, some of which have recently been introduced to a dangerous junction outside Frome, Mrs Sabine criticised the lack of council or government funding available to take further preventative action such as the installation of traffic lights.
She added: “We can’t put in the kind of preventative measures if we can’t fund them.”
Anna spoke of recent figures from road safety charity Brake that suggest one in five drivers crash within a year of passing their test. She suggested serious consideration needs to be given to restrictive driving schemes such as Graduate Drivers Licenses, levels of which are already in place in Northern Ireland, and in the UK for motorcyclists with some success.
Such schemes could potentially limit the amount of passengers in a car or the speed allowance for new drivers and would hope to lessen the amount of accidents in those critical first 12 months.
Mrs Sabine said in Parliament: “I can totally understand why young people might resent the ideal of graduated driving licences. And I can see why in rural areas like mine, really stringent restrictions on driving, like preventing young people from driving at night, might make it very hard for young people to get to jobs or go to educational settings if buses aren’t frequent enough.
“But I think it warrants a conversation, because it’s young people who have the most to lose if we can’t get this right.”