The Police Service of Northern Ireland has released its 2024 annual report which shines a light on the number of law breakers caught on the country’s roads. But while 30-49 year olds were responsible for 43% of recorded driving-based offences last year - hardly a huge surprise given this age group accounts for 35% of the population that holds licences - it’s 18-29 year olds that are arguably the naughtiest.
While just 15% of all legal motorists are between the ages of 18 and 29, it is the second-largest offending group at 37%. Misdemeanours recorded in the 27-page document cover a wide range of topics, including speeding, and a key figure from the insurance industry feels the statistics would make for grimmer reading if black boxes didn’t exist.
“It’s always troubling to see that the most inexperienced drivers on our roads are being caught breaking the law,” said Peter Cook, a manager at Sterling Insurance.
“They take more risks and often put wear and tear on their often older vehicles by driving erratically. It’s this, and the facts we see, that makes this market one of the riskiest to cover and pushes up the prices of premiums.
“This is a huge level of offending but I assure you it would be far worse without black boxes, especially in the younger parts of this age bracket. We all want young drivers to be driving safely and this technology allows us to educate customers and monitor their activities behind the wheel.
“It will flag up issues such as speeding but also inform customers about how they’re driving. Better actions behind the wheel will make tyres and brakes last longer, which means they’re less likely to fall foul of offences due to construction and use, and be driving around in safer vehicles, at appropriate speeds - which is good news for all concerned.”
The largest offence group recorded was insurance offences with a total of 5,739 detections. However, this figure – which saw one sixth of under-18s punished for the crime – was a huge 24% decrease year-on-year. This may be down to the decreasing prices for premiums in Northern Ireland, helped in large by a reduction in the Ogden rate (personal injury discount) that insurers pay.
In 2024, the number of motoring offences decreased by 16%, down to 34,795 from 41,492 in 2023. This may be due to a reduction in police budgets and an increase in other bodies, such as the Northern Ireland Road Safety Partnership, catching law breakers. Their data is not included in the report.
Sterling has produced detailed analysis of the data and provided insight on a host of other areas including drink and drug driving offences, speeding, gender-based offending and geographical insights.
Mr Cook added: “There’s plenty to get your teeth into and the facts and figures don’t always tell the full story.
“Headline numbers and stats are just that so we’ve dug a little deeper. Hopefully by the time the 2025 report drops we’ll have seen an improvement in plenty of figures, especially those being caught without insurance.
“It negatively impacts every motorist, and insurers, and we can only hope that the reduction in premium prices will stop even more people from breaking the law in this way.”