How can reckless teenage driving be prevented?

I’m 25 and have a mortgage, husband and a nine year old kid lol.
No need to infantilise millions of young adults because of a few idiots.

These young men were probably little shits long before this happened and nothing was done about it we should bring back borstals I think

Teenagers are in general completely out of control in the UK, driving recklessly is only the tip of the iceberg. Many problems are deep rooted; mix a bit of alcohol and drug use, basically no way out.

But none of this, (and I’d be happy for your rules to apply to my own kids) will be obeyed by the feral yobs that have been responsible for awful crashes in the news. They’re wrong’uns stealing cars, they’re not going to say, “hold up, this is a high powered Audi - we’re only 14, we need to steal a 1L Nissan Micra”
More rules just make life trickier for the law abiding while the thugs carry on as they like…

No easy answer. I grew up on an estate in poverty and my own family were an 'ASBO', antisocial behaviour type of family, I don't know why/how I escaped. A mixture of enjoying school, seeing teachers as people their to help me rather than a figure to be hated, foster families who I saw as saviours.

I live and teach in a deprived area, albeit I live on the outskirts but people post on the community group about young men - always men - who are riding their ebikes/scooters and smashing up the area. The comments are (its just kids being kids'. The majority of law abiding, community minded people just get on with their everyday lives and don't speak out due to abuse online or in real life.

Despite austerity there is a help out there. My son is ASD so I know how supportive the local comp is. DH coaches two football teams, one an inclusive team. Sadly, some families will not engage with help as I know from my own upbringing, authority figures are viewed with contempt.

Uhh, the usual kneejerk useless response. Did you quote the daily mail directly?

Do you really think young criminals in a stolen car, likely unlicensed, definitely uninsured, possibly drunk or high, would suddenly stop and think, 'hmm stop boys, we don't have a dashcam and there's more than 1 of us, let's all go home instead and read a book or something'

All your 'proposals' would do is make life harder and less convenient for the masses of young law abiding drivers out there. It would not affect the criminals a single jot.

Illegally? Not much.

Dash cams, black boxes, speed restrictors on cars insured for under 21s, engine size restrictions for younger drivers, passenger limits etc etc
...can't stop those who steal cars because they are already breaking the law.

You get men speeding in their twenties.

Footballer Diogo Jota (father of three) and younger brother André Silva died in 2025, when their Lamborghini suffered a tire blowout while overtaking a vehicle in Spain. Diogo Jota was speeding.

How would raising the driving age to 25 stop someone younger stealing a car and driving it illegally?

I blame the parents. Maybe if the parents of these scrotes got fined or something they'd actually be motivated to do some parenting.

Any changes to the rules regarding driving aren’t going to have an impact. This was a stolen car.

The only thing I can think of is some sort of limiter for speed. I have no idea how that would work in practice or indeed, if it’s possible given the variety of different speed limits.

It’s also got a lot to do with shit parenting. It’s ok saying you can’t make a 17 year old stay in; however, you can stop a child becoming the kind of teenager who is out stealing cars or riding in stolen cars.

Both of these crashes were in stolen vehicles.

Definitely think max one passenger until at least a year of incident free driving. Cars full of boys just egg each other on.

Can’t speak to Ireland but in the uk you have to o pass a theory test and a practical test before you can drive without an experienced driver supervising.

in the uk many of these types of crashes are teen boys who do not actually have a licence or insurance.

17 year olds are generally allowed out in the evening without parental supervision. in Scotland they may be at uni without parents anyway, in the uk at 18 significant minority go away for uni.

many providers of car insurance for teens require a black box in the car to monitor their driving.

having said that I get the impression from the reporting that the car in the U.K. was being chased by police so presumably the driver was motivated to avoid arrest hence the driving dangerously.

Dash cams non negotiable
under 21 men cannot carry passengers after dark (or at all)
newly qualified drivers are not allowed cars over 1 litre for the first xx years.
as above, no modifications allowed on cars to engine etc until all drivers are over 25.

I’m unsure how you’d prevent a 17 year old going out. At 16 I’d actually moved out and had a kid.

I don’t think reckless teen driving is new and the families may well have contributed to the whole balaclava wearing wannabe gangster thing but they’re likely not smart enough to realise that.