Young drivers may well feel sometimes that the whole insurance industry is using them as their own private money box; insurance quotations for people with little driving experience under the age of 21 are often in four figures and it is certainly not unheard of for a year's insurance to cost more than the price of a car. It is very difficult to argue with the insurance companies on this point however, because the hard cold fact is that these drivers are responsible for many more times as many claims than their older and more experienced counterparts, and these claims cost more too, not only in cash terms but also in serious injuries and even loss of lives. Young drivers pay more for insurance because, on average, they are responsible for far more accidents.

Recent estimates indicate that roughly 1 in five new drivers are going to have a serious accident on the road within one year of passing the driving test; a truly awful statistic and a tragedy not only for those drivers themselves but also for their families, friends and loved ones. Anything that can be done to bring down this toll is to be welcomed, and one excellent initiative is Pass Plus, a government backed scheme to encourage those who have recently passed their driving tests, or who have reason to feel that they have had insufficient experience, to take an additional series of driving lessons to provide them with the skills and experience necessary to be able to safely drive on motorways, country lanes, dual carriageways and urban centres, as well as to be able to be confident in bad weather or at night. For their own part, a growing number of insurance companies are recognizing the fact that customers who are prepared to spend their own money and a great deal of time on honing their driving skills in this way are far less likely to be responsible for accidents in the future, and so they are offering them discounts, in some cases very substantial ones indeed. Taking a Pass Plus course can be a little expensive since it is necessary to employ the services of a qualified and authorised driving instructor, but many young people with expensive car insurance premiums have found that the savings they get as a result of the discounts they qualify for can greatly outweigh the expense. Even leaving the cost to one side, it is very comforting to know that someone who has successfully navigated their way through the course is far less likely to feature in the grim accident statistics that young people feature in all too often, which is perhaps a reason why an increasing number of parents are prepared to pay for these courses themselves, or to offer them as gifts to their children. They could in fact be giving them the gift of life itself, for a second time.