INSURERS plan to lobby the Government for changes to the rights of young drivers, such as restrictions on the number of passengers they can carry and the hours they drive, The Times has learnt.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is in talks with road safety and motoring groups and will outline its plans at its first national motor conference on September 20.

Some of the proposals are based on California’s laws, which the US’s Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said led to a 23 per cent cut in crashes among 16-year-old drivers.

In January, California passed even stronger laws that raised the minimum age for a learner’s permit by six months, brought forward a night-time driving restriction from midnight to 11pm and extended passenger restrictions to cover the first year of driving, up from six months.

Norwich Union, Britain’s second-largest motor insurer, last week threatened premium rises of more than 30 per cent for young male drivers. The insurer said that motor cover had been unprofitable for too long, in part because inexperienced male drivers had a one-in-two chance of crashing in their first year of driving, usually in a car full of other young people.

Simon Machell, the chief executive of Norwich Union Insurance, said: “It’s not the damage to the car that costs us, it's the injuries to third parties that can run to hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of pounds.”

The ABI will release research today in support of its new campaign. The association’s evaluation of the Pass Plus scheme, which aims to teach new drivers how to deal with different types of driving hazards, found that motorists who passed the scheme had 0.19 accidents in their first year of driving, compared with 0.20 accidents for drivers who did not take part in Pass Plus.

Pass Plus was launched by the Driving Standards Agency in 1995 and is completed by one in six new drivers. Insurers offer discounts of up to 35 per cent for customers who pass.

Stephen Haddrill, director- general of the ABI, said that the statistically insignificant effect of Pass Plus showed that more action was needed to improve the safety of young drivers.

“Government and other organisations must reduce this trend, which represents a tragedy for too many families,” Mr Haddrill said. “This is why insurers are developing a coalition for action.”

The ABI will present its ideas to the Minister for Transport, Dr Stephen Ladyman, at its conference. The minister will address the conference on the effect of the Government’s transport policy on insurers.

America’s Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that across the United States 62 per cent of teenage passenger deaths in 2004 occurred in crashes in which another teenager was driving. As a result, California law forbids teenagers with less than a year of experience on a provisional driver’s licence to transport anyone under 20 years old unless driving with a licensed parent or guardian.

Newly licensed drivers aged under 18 are not allowed to drive other young people for a year and cannot drive from 11pm to 5am, except in medical emergencies or for school or work reasons.

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