Transition times: The roads are surprisingly safe for young people. But turn 16 and they turn treacherous. How can we make them a less dangerous place to be, asks Gráinne FallerThe price of safetyUseful links

Sixteen is an important birthday. It may not confer as many legal rights as turning 18 does, but it is the beginning of young adulthood. It's that confusing time when ticket tellers charge you adult rates but won't let you into the latest horror flick. It is also, more ominously, the age at which the roads become extremely dangerous.

For younger teenagers, road deaths are minimal. Then, all of a sudden, they start ballooning. By the time you hit 17, according to the National Safety Council, you are almost eight times more likely to have a serious accident than the average driver. If you're male, things look even worse, because once you turn 16, and until you reach your 25th birthday, you are the driver who is most likely to kill or be killed on the roads.

As most crashes are caused by driver error, and as 43 people were killed last month alone, it seems that many drivers are making fatal mistakes. Educating them is an obvious step to take, but when the problem is beginning even before people can legally drive, what is a school to do?

The National Safety Council aims its Staying Alive road-safety programme at transition-year students. It has a drawback, however: no practical element. Some schools are tackling the problem head on, by incorporating a module of practical road skills into transition year.

"I had a young lad in the school who passed his test, and three weeks later he was killed on the roads," says Noel Quinn of Hynes-Quinn Driving School, in Longford, who has been giving transition-year students day-long courses for 12 years. It was incidents such as that that prompted him to run the programme. Essentially, he goes out to schools with a panel of people and, together with students, they discuss how accidents happen and how they might be prevented. After instructions on safety, the students then gain some practical experience, driving in a cordoned-off area with one of the instructors who join Quinn for the day. "I do use some shock tactics, I suppose," he says. "I ask students to look around and remind them that, by the law of averages, one person in their class will die on the roads in the next five years. I remind them that it could be them."

There is huge demand for the course, and similar ones are run by other driving schools throughout the country. The slight downside to such courses is their brevity. Athlone, however, has an interesting venture. The Co Westmeath town is home to one of only two driving simulators in the country, and local students are availing of a six-week course run by Benson School of Motoring.

Elaine Egan, a student at Summerhill School in Athlone, has just finished her second lesson when I speak to her. "It's just like being in a real car," she says. "It's upholstered, there are seat belts and there are three screens, for the road and the mirrors." As she's talking she bursts out laughing as her friend crashes the simulator. "It's great. It allows you to make mistakes," she says. "We're starting a steering course at the moment, and it makes sure everything is right, that your hands are in the right position."

The idea is that the students have a number of set lessons in the simulator, then graduate to a lesson in a real car. "The idea of safety was really important," says Rhona O'Neill, a student at Athlone Community College. She did the course last year. "The six half-hour sessions really gave us the basics. Driving a real car was fine after that."

Jim Kearns, who supervises the transition-year courses, had big ideas when he bought the simulator. He thought people might sponsor it for schools, but when that turned out not to be the case he decided to purchase one anyway. Now Benson School of Motoring has an entire room dedicated to it. "It's excellent for young lads who would have picked up very bad habits from driving tractors," he says. "The simulator won't let you through to the next stage unless you're able to cope with the first. It tells you what you're doing wrong."

People involved in driver education generally agree that something formal needs to be incorporated into the curriculum. "At 15 or 16 you're just hitting the right age for driver education," says Kearns. "We're trying to get the Government on this." At €40,000 the simulators are not cheap, but one in every region could help stamp out bad driving habits.

Noel Quinn has proposed a pilot scheme of his programme. "I went to the safety council, to see if they were willing to financially back 50 per cent of what it would cost to run the course in, say, three counties. I'd finance the rest, and we could see if it cut down on accidents."

One organisation is trying to create more than a stopgap. The Irish Drivers' Education Association has created a programme that it hopes will become part of the transition-year curriculum. Steer Clear, which is being piloted in some schools next year, has three stages. The first involves 20 hours of theory, the second consists of between six and 10 hours of driving lessons, and the third is 40 hours of practice with a mentor. The programme, which would begin in transition year, should result in big discounts on motor insurance. The drawback is that it is expensive, so it might need to be subsidised were it to be introduced nationally.

One thing is certain: too many young people are dying needlessly. How much are their lives worth, and are we willing to pay the price?

Cost is likely to be one of the main problems for driver education in schools. The simulator in Athlone costs a very reasonable €60 for a six-week course - but the simulator itself costs €40,000. Noel Quinn's day-long course, which includes a driving lesson, costs €45 per student - also reasonable, but out of reach for some students. Steer Clear would cost €390 for the 20 hours of theory in stage one. Stage two is the cost of six driving lessons. Stage three - mentoring - is free if you can find someone to be your passenger for 40 hours. The course is thorough, and you may recoup the cost in insurance savings, but it is a lot to pay upfront.

www.hynesquinn.com Hynes-Quinn Driving School's website www.bensonschoolofmotoring.net

Have a look at the driving simulator www.racsom.ie The RAC School of Motoring has Ireland's other driving simulator

www.steerclear.ie An introduction to the proposed programme

www.rosemarysmith.net A well-known course for transition-year students called Think Awareness

www.earlydrive.ie Irish School of Motoring's transition-year programme

www.lireland.com A list of links to driving schools in your area, as well as driver information and more