Ministers urged to speed up a crackdown on young drivers Nearly, 2,500 people aged 16 to 25 were killed in 2011 or suffered serious injuries on Britain's roads while driving a car or being driven by another young motorist. In the letter the eight organsations say: "Despite each casualty being a needless waste of life and heart-breaking for families, successive governments have failed to take decisive action to stop this tragic loss of young lives. We welcome this Government's interest in improving driver safety and are calling for it to seize the opportunity. We need a genuine and open debate about the combination of changes to the testing and training system that has the best chance of making our roads safer for young people and everyone one. The ABI last summer called for under 25s to be forced to learn to drive for a minimum of 12 months and for a controversial curfew on night time driving in a bid to takcle accidents by younger motorists. Other measures included imiting the number of passengers allowed in a car with a new young drivers. The ABI vowed its members would cut the cost of insurance for young motorists if it's measures were implemented in full. Insurers claim that younger drivers make up just 12 per cent of licence holders but are involved in a quarter of all road deaths and servous accidents. Campaigners believe the Government is worried about the effect a crackdown on young motorists would have on mobility, particularly in the countryside. But a Michelin study revealed by the Daily Telegraph in May showed 17 to 25 year-old driverrs were twice as likely to crash on rural roads. Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive of road safety charity Brake added: "The longer the Government leaves this the more people will lose their lives, the more people will suffer injuries. We have been campaigning for years but in the past all we have seen is people talking about tinkering with driving tests. That's not enough, we need to see bold action and as quickly as possible.