The major rule changes are:<\/p>\n
New drivers will not be permitted to take their driving test for at least six months after being granted a provisional licence<\/p>\n
They must also complete 14 modules in a programme of training, which has to be signed off by an approved driving instructor or a supervising driver that could be a parent or guardian<\/p>\n
An increase in the restriction period from 12 months to 24 months requiring new drivers to display an ‘R’ plate style mark on their vehicles after passing their test – a different colour of ‘R’ plate will signify a driver in their initial six-month period<\/p>\n
For the first six months after passing their test, new drivers up to the age of 24 are only permitted to have one passenger aged between 14 and 20 in their car between the hours of 23:00 and 06:00<\/p>\n
That restriction would not include immediate family members and does not apply if someone aged 21 or over, who has held a drivers licence for at least three years, is sitting in the front seat<\/p>\n
Learner drivers will be allowed to drive on the motorway if accompanied by an approved instructor and will be allowed to drive on the motorway up to the posted speed limit, after passing their test<\/p>\n
The current speed limit of 45mph for restricted drivers will also be removed.<\/p>\n
Drivers who do not follow the restrictions could receive three penalty points or a fine of up to \u00a31,000.<\/p>\n
PSNI Ch Supt Donaldson welcomed the scheme, and said he wished it was introduced immediately.<\/p>\n
“Young people who are 17, 18 and new drivers regardless of what age, they don’t recognise the risk the way perhaps some of us here a little bit older do,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So I absolutely welcome this graduated response, some restrictions in terms of who they can carry, times of day they can travel and things like that because we’ve got to bring our new drivers on a slower journey to allow them to learn how to drive on the roads. <\/p>\n
“That’s the way it’s done in Scandinavia and they have far safer roads than we have, so we’ve got to learn from them and we’ve got to bring this in.”<\/p>\n
The Department for Infrastructure said it would shortly launch a public information campaign about graduated driver licensing, and officials would liaise with approved instructors, the PSNI and a range of others ahead of the new rules being introduced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The major rule changes are: New drivers will not be permitted to take their driving test for at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-392567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}