'It's time for action over young drivers'

GRIEVING PARENTS RENEW GRADUATED LICENCE CALL AFTER TEEN JAILED

- JAMES CARTLEDGE

THE jailing of a Midland teenager who killed three other teens has sparked renewed calls for restrictions on new drivers.

Graduated licensing typically involves the issuing of an intermediate license with restrictions, including on night-time trips or journeys with multiple passengers, to cut back new drivers' exposure to high-risk situations.

Relatives of those killed by a driver just six weeks after he passed his test this week became the latest families to demand the scheme be adopted in the UK. The Government said in January it was not considering adopting the policy.

Edward Spencer was just 17 when he caused the deaths of his passengers Harry Purcell, also 17, and Tilly Seccombe and Frank Wormald, both 16, by careless driving.

The court heard Spencer, a pupil at Chipping Campden School in Gloucestershire, was speeding at 64mph towards his home in Newbold on Stour in Warwickshire in April 2023 when he lost control of his Ford Fiesta and crashed head-on into another car.

The trainee joiner, now 19, was locked up for just two years on Monday, April 28, after also admitting causing serious injury to two children and their stepmother, who were travelling in the second vehicle.