Northern Ireland car insurance customers who are newly qualified to drive face having special speed limits – and restrictions on the number of passengers they can carry – imposed as part of new measures to cut the number of deaths on the region's roads.

A curfew for new drivers could also be introduced after Northern Ireland environment minister Edwin Poots revealed 115 people were killed on the region's roads last year. That's eight more than in the previous 12 months.

Representatives for the environment department told the Belfast Telegraph Poots wants to make "a real difference" to road safety in Northern Ireland.

"Almost 40 per cent of the fatal and serious collisions on our roads involve young drivers aged between 17 and 24, many of them in their first one or two years of driving," added a spokesperson. "Evidence of graduated driver licensing systems in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand supports the view that limiting the risk exposure of new drivers while they gain additional experience can reduce the likelihood that they will be involved in a collision."

Consultations will begin later this year on proposals to replace the current 45mph limit for new drivers with alternative measures.