Three teens dead. One reckless driver jailed. We need the graduated driving licence law writes Nick Ferrari
1 May 2025, 08:29 | Updated: 1 May 2025, 10:12
It's not until you are fortunate enough to become a parent you understand the full impact and extent of that expression “every parent’s nightmare.”
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In reality, the worries start the second the little one is placed in your arms and the roller-coaster ride begins. Moments of unbridled joy and pride as you watch their triumphs, and the darkest of fears in less happy times.
As a baby, you gently nudge them while they’re sleeping in their cot as you’ve falsely convinced yourself they’ve stopped breathing. They haven’t – as the ensuing howls of anger attest.
Then come the toddler years when stair guards are fitted, and all electricity sockets are filled in with safety plugs or covered up with hastily moved furniture.
After that, it’s off to school, and you try to hone your best MI6 skills and follow them discreetly from a distance, and without their knowledge, as you tail them on their way to school or the bus stop.
You can bet the parents of Matilda Seccombe, Harry Purcell and Frank Wormald would have shared those experiences as they watched their much-loved children progress through their teens and get to the verge of adulthood.
But tragically, that is where the story of those lives has to finish, after their young lives were ended in a reckless and horrific car accident that could have been prevented.
The case was heard at Warwick Crown Court this week and today (Thursday), campaigners are strengthening their resolve to try and bring about a change in the law that could save hundreds of lives.
The car that was carrying Matilda and Frank who were both 16, and Harry, who was 17, was being driven by Edward Spencer, a fellow sixth form pupil at a school in Gloucestershire.
Spencer, now 19, had passed his test just six weeks earlier and had already earned the reputation of being a dangerous driver. The court heard he had been “showing off, taking risks, driving too quickly” and one social media posting showed a young passenger in his car berate him :”You can drive nicely when you pass and then you drive like a d*******.”
This was an accident waiting to happen and Spencer was sent to a Young Offender Institution for two years.
Whether this irresponsible idiot will reflect on the heartache he caused seems unlikely as the woman who was driving the car he crashed into causing her children serious injuries said: “The first time I saw him in court he was listening to music on his headphones and dancing in the waiting room. Seeing him in court, he smirked. He has shown nothing but belligerence.”
When we covered this story, we featured an interview with Brake, the road safety charity which has done a lot of work successfully raising awareness of the issue, and the support shown by listeners was remarkable.
Figures from the Department for Transport show around 20 per cent of all those killed or seriously injured on the nation’s roads in 2023 – the last year for which full figures are available – were in collisions involving a young driver, that is defined as being between 17 and 24.
In harsh terms, that’s around 6,000 fatalities or serious injuries most of which could easily be prevented by bringing in what are called ‘Graduated Driving Licences’ or GDL’s.
They mean young drivers who have just passed their test are subjected to restrictions such as not carrying younger passengers, not driving late at night, having a sticker on the back of their vehicle showing they have just passed the test and being subjected to lower speed limits, such as a maximum of 55 mph on ALL roads.
This would apply for the first 12 months they are on the road, and if they are in breach, the clock simply starts again. Or they have to retake their test.
This law could be brought in easily.
And to honour the memories of those three tragic teens, there should be no delay.
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