Learner drivers face new testing hazards
Driving instructors will gain powers to force learners to have extra lessons before taking their tests, under the biggest reform of the driver education system since the driving test was introduced in 1935.

The Government is proposing that learners should have to obtain a “test readiness certificate” signed by the instructor or “supervising driver”.

The Department for Transport admitted yesterday that there was a risk that unscrupulous instructors could delay signing the certificate in order to charge for extra lessons.

Learners will, however, be able to tell which instructors in their areas have the highest pass rates and best qualifications under a new star-rating system.

Car airbags to protect cyclists
More than a decade after airbags became standard fittings to protect drivers and passengers, similar safeguards could now be extended to the outside of vehicles, softening the blow for pedestrians and cyclists hit by cars.

An airbag has been developed to inflate under the car’s bonnet, reducing the impact on any riders who land on it. Another, at the base of the windscreen, stops a cyclist’s head going through the glass.

The bags are triggered when sensors detect that a person is heading towards the car after being hit. If adopted by car companies, the invention has the potential to save some of the lives lost on Britain’s roads. In 2006, 675 pedestrians and 146 cyclists were killed.

Motorists lose chance to skip foreign fines
Foreign drivers will no longer be able to escape detection for speeding and jumping red lights under a cross-border enforcement plan announced by the European Commission yesterday.

Police will be able to demand the names and addresses of owners of vehicles registered in any EU state.

The new power will make it much easier to trace foreign drivers who commit offences in Britain. It will also mean that British motorists driving overseas are more likely to be sent penalties in the post when they are caught by speed and red light cameras.

Rush for diesel as drivers avoid tax
Diesel engines used to be dismissed by most drivers as too dirty, noisy and slow even to consider as their next car purchase. But their greater efficiency is attracting a record number of motor-ists, according to figures published to-day by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

By 2011 sales of diesel-powered cars will outstrip petrol-powered cars as millions more drivers seek to avoid the heavy tax penalties announced last week for fuel-inefficient vehicles.