POLICE FROM across Scotland will gather in Perth next month to discuss the best way forward to educate young motorists about safe driving.

The seminar will take place three days after changes to the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) theory test for car and motorcycle candidates come into effect on September 3, when the number of multiple choice questions rise from 35 to 50.

Provisional figures released by Transport Secretary Stewart Steven-son in response to a Parliamentary question revealed a two-year fall in deaths on the roads in Tayside.

However, the figures also showed the number of fatalities on Scottish roads has increased since 2004, and drivers between the ages of 17 and 25 account for 30% of the total number of people killed each year in fatal collisions.

A total of 32 under-25s were killed on the country’s roads in the first three months of the year and four young lives were lost over the weekend, following two separate crashes in Fife and Aberdeenshire.

Chief Inspector Sandy Bowman, Tayside Police’s head of road policing, said it was decided that a seminar should be held to discuss best practice between forces.

Mr Bowman said, “In the vast majority of fatal accidents involving young males, the male drivers or riders were found ostensibly to be at fault for driving at inappropriate speeds or losing control of their vehicles.

“Of girls who were killed in cars as passengers, all of them were passengers in vehicles being driven by young males.

“The number of serious and slight injuries in collisions of people of this age also works out as 30% of the total injured in a year.”

Tayside Chief Constable John Vine instigated the conference, asking colleagues in other forces if they had been experiencing similar problems.

The seminar will be held at Tayside Police’s western division headquarters in Perth on September 6.

“It won’t be a massive conference, but there will be similar interested groups looking at the issue to determine what might be the causational factors and the way forward,” said Mr Bowman.

“Organisations such as Road Safety Scotland, the Institute of Advanced Motorists, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the DSA will be attending, along with academics.

“It will be an ongoing process and we will be re-examining the whole issue of young drivers and road safety education.”