A survey of road accident statistics at University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG), one of the State's largest casualty departments, has shown that over 40 per cent of those involved are between the ages of 17 and 26 years.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has said the results of the study show clearly that there is a need for changes in how provisional driving licences are granted to young learner drivers.
Dr David Lillis, IHCA president and a consultant paediatrician at UCHG, said that the survey "clearly demonstrated" that the age group from 17 to 26 years is "far and away the most prone to accidents".
He said handing out licences at £12 each to young people, some of whom may be as young as 16 years old, against the background levels of alcohol consumption, "is as irresponsible as handing a loaded shotgun to a child".
Of the 1,185 admissions studied, which ranged from infants to 82-year-olds, over 41 per cent were in the 17 to 25 age group. Dr Lillis pointed out that the 25 per cent of drivers who are unqualified come almost exclusively from this group.
He said evidence from orthopaedic surgeons suggested that speed was the major contributor to serious injuries in this group while the opinion of pathologists "clearly indicates that alcohol is a major contributor to deaths".
Dr Lillis said everyone was in agreement that serious measures needed to be taken to curtail the number of accidents, injuries and deaths on our roads. "Understandably there are calls for increased garda surveillance, more severe penalties for speeding offences and for being convicted of driving with excess alcohol," he said.
It was very surprising, he said, that we continue to allow over 330,000 young people drive cars, frequently without the supervision of a qualified driver, without any evidence of their ability to control a car. "It is amazing that we should have an anomaly whereby a young driver who has failed his first test is legally entitled to drive without supervision even though he had demonstrated through his failure to pass the test that he is not able to safely drive a motor car."
He pointed out that there are 34,000 people on hospital waiting lists unable to obtain admission for badly needed treatment "yet millions of pounds are consumed in casualty, theatre time and intensive care in treating people in their late teens and early 20s who have been admitted to hospital following serious road accidents, each and every one of which could have been avoided".
In addition to introducing a legal obligation whereby a learner driver is accompanied by a qualified driver, failure to do so should result in that person being disqualified for a significant period of time. "Regulations should also be introduced to ensure that all learner drivers undergo written and practical tests within six months of applying for their first licence and at three-monthly intervals thereafter, until such time as they pass these tests," he said.