A bereaved mother has given her support to the introduction of graduated driving licences after her 17 year old son and three friends were killed in a car crash in Gwynedd in late 2023.

Last October Crystal Owen started a petition urging changes to driving laws, including preventing 17-19-year-old drivers from carrying passengers aged 25 or younger unless accompanied by an older adult. More than 23,000 people have signed it (www.change.org/p/safer-driving-licensing-for-newly-qualified-17-19-year-olds) and on January 28, she will head to Westminster to watch a parliamentary debate on road safety for young drivers.

“It’s a scientific fact that they (17-19-year-olds) aren’t able to assess risks properly at that age,” she told the Denbighshire Freepress.

“With an older adult, they’re 66 per cent less likely to crash. With every year, you’re less likely to crash, just because your brain is more developed.

“Six times more people are killed in car crashes than from knife crime. We can all be affected by cars because, from the minute we’re born, we’re in and out of them, or we’re pedestrians. It can affect anyone.

“I would never have allowed Harvey to go on that trip if I’d known a young driver was driving. At the moment, some parents just assume: ‘If they’ve passed their tests, they’re safe to take my child’ .

“I know this law would have saved Harvey’s life. I didn’t even know he had a friend who drove, so this is the last thing I would have thought would have affected me.

“It wouldn’t actually take anything away from young people. They can still drive anywhere they want to, with their friends, just as long as they’re accompanied by an adult. A teenage parent could still take their children.

“It’s just a small inconvenience, for very few people, for a short amount of time, which could make a massive difference.”

For more on graduated licences click here to watch a TRL webinar.

Pic: Owen family