Somewhat older Dutch research shows that crash risk is highest just after acquisition of the driving licence and that it decreases fast during the first years due to drivers gaining more experience [2]. In 2017, Curry and colleagues found the same effect among a large group of American novice drivers [3]: the younger the driver, the higher the crash risk at the start of the driving career. During the first few years, the crash risk for young novice drivers does decrease more rapidly than it does for older novice drivers [3]. Vlakveld [2] also clearly shows this in the figure below.
Figure 3. Decrease of crash risk for novice drivers who started their driving careers early and for novice drivers who started their driving career later/late (based on self-reported crashes and mileage; [2]).
