• Since a Mr J Beene took the first ever driving test in 1935, over 94 million tests have been conducted in Great Britain.

• In the 1930s, there were only 1.5 million cars in the UK, but over 7,000 people a year were being killed on the roads; more than twice the present level - when traffic levels are 20 times higher.

• In the early days of motoring, there were few rules or regulations. In 1893, France was the first country in the world to introduce a driving test, along with the first vehicle registration plates and parking restrictions.

• The first car and driver licences were introduced in Britain in 1903, but testing was unknown here for another 30 years.

• Miss Vera Hedges Butler was the first British woman to pass a driving test: as it was 1900,and drivers were not yet being tested in Britain, the intrepid Miss Hedges Butler decided to go all the way to Paris to take the French test.

• By the early 1930s, motoring had become more popular and more affordable. However, rules and regulations were scant and drivers received only basic instructions before being allowed on the roads.

Consequently, accidents and fatalities began to reach worrying proportions.

(1.5 million of which were cars) compared to more than 30 million vehicles in 2003.

• In 1935, when Leslie Hore-Belisha, became the new Transport Minister, he introduced the driving test – first in March as a voluntary test. During the 1930s safety glass became mandatory for windscreens after terrible injuries had been caused by accidents in cars with ordinary glass.
• Seat belts did not appear until the 1950s but were not made compulsory in front seats until 1983.

• Arm signals out of the window were withdrawn from the test in 1975 and more modern additions to the test have

Early efforts to improve road safety in Britain included:

• The London ‘Safety First’ Council, formed in 1916, which introduced a range of road safety initiatives (in 1941the Council became RoSPA - The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents).

• A test for disabled drivers, introduced in 1930.

• The first vehicle examiners, appointed in 1930.

• The minimum driving age of 17 and an urban speed limit of 30 mph, both set in 1930.

• The first edition of the Highway Code, published in 1931.

• Passenger Service Vehicle testing, brought in at traffic commissioners’ discretion in 1931 (prompted by the bus races of the

1920s).

• Cats’ eyes, invented by Percy Shaw in 1934.