Young drivers consistently broke speed limit to make England’s World Cup kick-offs
Written by: Abaranji Sivakumar, Last updated:14th February 2022
No young football fan wants to miss the start of an important match so it should be no surprise that they’re willing to bend the rules of the road a bit to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Figures from black box insurer Insure The Box revealed that speeding amongst motorists aged between 17 and 24 increased by over a fifth in the hour before each of England’s World Cup matches.
Ahead of the lions’ semi-final clash with Croatia, it leapt by a whopping 43 per cent.
As you’d expect, the level of speeding among young drivers during the England World Cup campaign depended on the importance of the game.
In the hour leading up to England’s clash with Belgium, the likelihood of young drivers speeding increased by seven per cent. That’s because the match had little riding on it as England had already qualified out of the groups.
However, before England’s do-or-die semi-final against Croatia, there was a 43 per cent hike in young motorists speeding. This meant that young drivers were speeding for one in every five miles, compared to the usual average of one in every nine miles.
Similarly, the hour preceding the quarter-final vs Sweden sparked a 23 per cent increase in speeding.
Why are young drivers more likely to crash?
Accident figures regularly suggest that young drivers are more likely to be involved in a crash.
Over half of all serious accidents on country roads involving 17 to 24-year-olds are due to loss of control, largely due to speeding, while the UK government’s 2016 report on road casualties revealed that 1,792 people were killed – a four per cent rise in speed-related road deaths year-on-year.
Liz Brooker, vice chair of Road Safety GB, believes that helping young drivers understand the risks associated with inappropriate speed is vital to cutting the number of collisions and casualties caused by speeding.
Jez Strong, general manager for Tele-Gence, commented: “No football match is worth risking an accident for and by simply being a bit more organised and leaving a few minutes earlier, young drivers won’t feel the need to speed. But if they do, telematics is a good way of monitoring driver behaviour.”
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