World
In today’s newsletter: A surge in deadly wrong‑way crashes has exposed our failure to protect young drivers, as grieving families and safety experts warn that age, inexperience and lax licensing rules are costing lives
Read full story on theguardian.com →
World news — Libby Brooks
Good morning. The UK government yesterday backed Ofcom to take “tough action” against social media companies that fail to remove posts celebrating dangerous driving, in response to a series of unsafe, and sometimes deadly, viral trends. Young men are filming themselves driving the wrong way down busy streets, accelerating to extreme speeds on narrow rural roads and putting a vehicle in “ghost mode” – switching off headlights and taillights at night – for clicks and kudos.
Andy Burnham labelled people who share such content as “truly reprehensible” after two police officers died in a head on collision in the early hours of Saturday morning near Middlesbrough. Their vehicle crashed into a car driving the wrong way down the A66. Five young men aged between 17 and 23 were inside, all of whom died too. The previous weekend, a family of four were seriously injured in a night-time collision with a car driving the wrong way along the M9 in County Kildare, Ireland. All five teenage boys in that car also died.
These are extreme examples of a devastating and far more quotidian phenomenon: the deaths of young lads in cars on our roads. For today’s First Edition I spoke to Crystal Owen , whose 17-year-old son Harvey died in a car crash in 2023, about what makes young men so vulnerable on the roads and how a single simple reform might change things. Before that, the headlines.
UK politics | Andy Burnham has backtracked on his proposal to rip up the government’s housing plans and boost social home building.
UK news | Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, is on course to earn as much from the social media platform X as he does from his salary as an MP, after surging income from posts that include demands for mass deportations.
Iran | The US has threatened to impose severe sanctions against any country or entity maintaining economic ties with Iran, hoping to achieve with economic measures what military means have so far failed to do.
Europe news | People trying to cross the Channel to the UK have reported an increase in French police use of violence on beaches to prevent them from getting into dinghies, according to a French NGO.
Climate crisis | The climate damage caused by developing the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields under consideration by the UK government would destroy their economic benefits many times over , according to an analysis.
In depth: ‘It is madness to hand the keys to a lethal weapon to a child of 17’
The details of these recent tragedies remain unclear – yesterday afternoon 12 people were arrested on suspicion of offences including being involved with organised crime as part of the investigation into events leading up to the A66 crash.
The news from Middlesbrough and Kildare has been heartbreaking, Crystal Owen tells me. “Obviously your attention is on the police officers, but you also see all the online comments about the kids … What they did was horrendous but it’s their families who are left to pay the price having lost a child.”
Owen lost Harvey, a college student who dreamed of opening an Italian-style cafe and spent his spare time with a cookbook open, in November 2023. He and three friends were on a camping trip in Wales when the car they were in left a rural road during heavy rain and flipped on to its roof, landing in a flooded ditch and trapping them. All four drowned.
Since then, Owen has become a dedicated campaigner for graduated driving licences – which place restrictions on newly qualified drivers while they build up road experience – and which she believes might have saved her son’s life.
“It is madness to think that we are handing the keys to a lethal weapon to a child of 17 that can’t even buy a pint of alcohol, yet they can be responsible for other people’s lives,” she says.
Road casualty data clearly shows that younger people are disproportionately represented. In 2024, drivers aged between 17 and 24 were involved in 20% of collisions on British roads that resulted in death or serious injury – but they hold only 6% of driving licences. Young male drivers are at greatest risk – among those aged 17 to 29, males made up around three-quarters of those killed or seriously injured last year .
These tragedies extend well beyond the young men behind the wheel: 50% of those killed or seriously injured in crashes involving a young driver are other road users, and a further 21% are passengers in vehicles driven by these younger drivers.
Road safety charity Brake argues these figures alone make a powerful case for change, and their Young Driver Safety report published in April revealed a well of public anxiety, with 59% of respondents worrying – 23% a lot – that this might happen to them or someone they love, and 54% of 18-to 24-year-olds having been in a crash involving a young driver, or knowing someone who has.
A combination of youth and inexperience puts these drivers at greater risk of injuring themselves or others. Brain-mapping research shows that the prefrontal cortex – a part of the brain associated with reasoning and risk assessment – continues to develop into the mid-20s, with young men’s maturing slightly later than their female peers.
A lack of day to day experience also lessens a younger driver’s ability to spot hazards or react safely to a sudden or unexpected event. This is especially true on rural roads, where crashes involving new drivers – who likely learned in an urban environment – tend to involve a single car.
“There’s a misconception that most of these crashes are caused by reckless driving,” says Owen, “but most of them are caused by age and inexperience.”
Seatbelt wearing remains a significant issue: around a third of young people killed in cars are not belted up and yet this simple action reduces the risk of death by 50%.
The Labour government published its long-awaited road safety strategy earlier this year, the first comprehensive national plan for more than a decade.
There was much in it that campaigners have welcomed, such as including targets for reducing road deaths for the first time in the UK since 2010, and proposing a gap of either three or six months after the theory test before taking the practical exam, a response to intensive “fast track” driving courses, which cram learning into one or two weeks and remove the need for drivers to clock up practice hours.
But many were very disappointed that graduated licences were excluded.
Graduated licences place restrictions on newly qualified drivers – such as stricter alcohol limits, constraints on carrying similar-age passengers, or curbing night-time driving – until they’re more seasoned behind the wheel. Similar policies in Australia, Canada and some US states have proven successful in reducing deaths and injuries. In Canada, there have been 83% fewer teenage driver deaths since it was instituted in the 1990s.
Some campaigners I have spoken to believe that opposition to graduated driving licences came directly from No 10, rather than the Department for Transport, amid concerns that the move would be politically unpopular just as over 16s were newly enfranchised. But the Brake survey found that a majority of British 18-to 24-year-olds were actually in favour of these limits.
From October, a form of graduated licence will be introduced in Northern Ireland, when drivers under 24 years old will be barred from carrying other young passengers between 11pm and 6am for six months after passing their test.
The Northern Irish reforms also require a minimum six-month gap between passing the theory test and taking the practical test, similar to what the UK government is proposing.
Many believe graduated driving licences are the missing piece of the puzzle, and there is some hope now that Heidi Alexander, one of only four secretaries of state who managed to retain their position in Burnham’s cabinet reshuffle, may have a change of heart as she considers consultation responses alongside the new PM, who is known to take transport seriously.
Owen is pragmatic: driving licence reform may not have made any difference to the devastation witnessed on Britain’s roads in recent weeks. “This is obviously the extreme end, and we’ve always said that graduated licences aren’t going to stop every crash. But even if they stopped 40% of deaths and serious injury, which is the average internationally, that is a huge amount of lives”.
Until then, she says, “more and more funerals are going to keep happening.”
I was mightily relieved reading Emine Saner’s piece on the arrival of US tipping culture in the UK – apparently it’s not just me who enters an etiquette tailspin when asked to add service charge for a pint. Lucinda Everett, newsletters team
I read Sanghmitra Singh’s reflections of the changing mood in Glasgow with a heavy heart. In case you missed it, she writes as part of Pass the Mic , a scheme that encourages more female experts of colour to contribute to national media. Libby
Hazaran Rahim Dad and Changeez Nazir’s report on how families in Nasirabad, Pakistan survive without fans, fridges or ventilation in high temperatures of up to 50C is a staggering, saddening read. Lucinda
I did appreciate Annie Zaleski’s read on the White Stripes drummer Meg White , who is finally receiving the recognition she’s due thanks to younger fans who aren’t saddled with sexist cultural baggage of previous generations. Libby
“Startled parrot”, “Duracell battery” and “someone wearing a hat made out of their own hair, on top of their own hair” are just some of the ways Guardian writers describe their worst ever haircuts in this brilliant roundup . Lucinda
Football | Chelsea’s front three of João Pedro, Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer were all on target as they began the Xabi Alonso era with a 3-2 win at Fulham.
Cricket | Brydon Carse has been stood down from England’s squad for the second Test against Pakistan this week as footage of him in police handcuffs outside a bar in Derby city is investigated by the sport’s disciplinary body.
Cycling | Richard Plugge has criticised cycling’s governing body for a lack of action following the recent death of Fin Tarling and said that cycling’s leading teams should take responsibility for ensuring safety.
“Burnham accuses Kremlin of ‘outrageous’ threats to Britain”, is the Guardian ’s front page today, while the Telegraph writes “UK handed secrets to foil Putin’s saboteurs”. The Times leads with “‘Realistic’ Burnham hints at tax increases in budget”, and the i Paper has “Council house boost: Rayner reveals plan for 70,000 homes to tackle crisis”.
The Mail splashes “Record 1 in 7 on antidepressants as pill use rockets”, and the FT leads on “Trump pledges to bump Canadian car tariffs to 50% after trade talks collapse”. The Sun has “War on deadly joyride vids”, and the Express says “Remove ‘sick’ danger driving footage now” and Metro writes “Time to halt the hellrides”.
UK hands secret missile technology to Ukraine
Andy Burnham is making his first foreign visit as prime minister to Ukraine, marking the country’s independence day. Burnham will use the trip to announce that the UK government will declassify information about missiles to help Ukraine build its own. Lucy Hough speaks to senior international correspondent Luke Harding.
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
The mysterious arrival of two wild beavers in the Pensthorpe nature reserve last December marked the first time the species had been recorded in Norfolk since being hunted to extinction in the 16th century. Now, conservationists at Pensthorpe are celebrating an even more joyous arrival – a pair of newborn kits .
Richard Spowage, manager at Pensthorpe, says the three-month-old kits, the first born in the county for 500 years, are “very playful” and enjoy feeding on willow and water mint. Pensthorpe is now crowdfunding an application to Natural England for permission to legally introduce wild beavers into the region.
“Reintroducing beavers to our landscapes makes a huge difference to nature’s recovery and where releases are managed carefully, they can secure long-term environmental benefits,” says Matt Heard, spokesperson for Natural England.
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And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
Andy Burnham labelled people who share such content as “truly reprehensible” after two police officers died in a head on collision in the early hours of Saturday morning near Middlesbrough. Their vehicle crashed into a car driving the wrong way down the A66. Five young men aged between 17 and 23 were inside, all of whom died too. The previous weekend, a family of four were seriously injured in a night-time collision with a car driving the wrong way along the M9 in County Kildare, Ireland. All five teenage boys in that car also died.
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Libby Brooks. Published 25 Aug 2026, 05:45 am.
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