The issue of young people being involved in tragic road accidents is one that desperately needs attention.

Many young people get behind the wheels of cars when they have barely passed their tests, and have little or no road experience. When the cars are packed with their teenage friends, it is easy to lose concentration and control, or show off in a dangerous manner, with often devastating consequences.

The RAC Foundation is asking the new government to formally debate the matter of the rising toll of deaths among young people on our roads, and it is difficult to argue against that.

Bradford is a district with a high proportion of young citizens and, as we have seen in recent years, some truly heartbreaking road deaths that perhaps could have been avoided.

Take Amjad Malik's son Saliq, who was just 15-years-old when he died when he was a passenger in a car that was involved in a horrific smash in Bradford last year.

Mr Malik quite rightly wants action taken to put the brakes on dangerous young drivers, to prevent the tragedy his family has suffered happening to anyone else.

There have already been great strides in trying to get young people to drive more sensibly, including "black box" technology fitted to the cars of new drivers which triggers punitive insurance hikes if they are deemed to drive recklessly or carelessly.

But the message must be delivered in the toughest possible terms to young people that if they drive like idiots someone is going to end up dead - whether it's them, their passengers, other road users, or pedestrians.