The call for action is included in the second edition of the company’s White Paper ‘Driving Safety First: Improving road safety for novice drivers,’ which has been released today in Brussels.

In addition to exploring the attitudes of driving instructors and novice drivers themselves, this new edition reveals the results of the Goodyear Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)  research that explores the attitudes of parents of novice drivers to road safety.

The company’s 2014 research is based on a wide-ranging survey of 6805 European parents of novice drivers (aged 16-25) from 19 countries. This research set out to better understand parents’ attitudes to road safety, both in how they are setting an example as drivers and in how they support children learning to drive.

Experts agree that parents play a pivotal role in shaping their children’s driving habits and attitudes to road safety. As the President of the European Parents Association (EPA), Eszter Salamon sees it, parents influence their children at every level and road safety is no exception. She says: “It is clear the role of parents starts very early. They are role models for the children. They drive behavior and their behavior on the road as drivers, cyclists or pedestrians has an influence.”

Based on the research findings, Goodyear is offering a number of calls to actions aimed at policymakers, driving instructors and other stakeholders in the road safety debate.  Some of Goodyear’s main recommendations include:

• The European Commission should encourage and fund public campaigns to increase awareness of parents’ role in educating their children about road safety.
• The European Commission should look to conduct research into the safety benefits of a graduated driving license.
• Local governments should encourage refresher courses in driving for experienced drivers.
• Goodyear suggests the introduction of a ‘road safety day for novice drivers’ to address the specific challenges novice drivers face on the road.
• The insurance industry should incentivize parents who demonstrate their commitment to safe driving (e.g. through the use of black box systems).
• Schools and colleges should consider teaching road safety as part of their responsibility beyond the primary school years.

In addition to these recommendations, as part of its ongoing commitment to road safety Goodyear will encourage collaboration between driving schools, established educational authorities and parents' to help to improve the safety of novice drivers.

The findings are presented today, October 2nd at a digitally broadcast roundtable, including a high-level panel discussion. The panel of leading experts in parenting, traffic psychology, road safety and policy will discuss the new insights and the relationship between the three most important groups in the future of road safety:  parents, driving instructors and novice drivers.

Olivier Rousseau, Goodyear vice president, consumer tires, EMEA, says: “This White Paper on Novice Drivers is the result of nearly a decade’s work by Goodyear, in promoting road safety. Building on research conducted across the EMEA region, we can now offer unique insights into the triangle of groups that matter the most in road safety: novice drivers, driving instructors and parents of novice drivers. As a major supplier of the automobile industry we play a key role in driving up road safety standards. I look forward to our continuing engagement with policy makers, road safety associations, driving schools, parents and the motor industry and to working with them to further improve the safety of our young drivers.“

Goodyear has collaborated with various partners on the research.  It consulted psychologists from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the development phase of the questionnaire, and Traffic Psychology International provided expert commentary to give feedback to the research. The European Parents Association and the European Driving Schools Association have also added their expertise.

The new edition of Goodyear’s Road Safety White Paper can be download at www.goodyear.eu. A video of the round table debate and press conference presenting Goodyear’s White Paper and discussing the survey results can be watched at: www.goodyear.eu/conference.