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You see, when I passed my driving test, only 37 hours elapsed before I careered off the road, and into a herd of sheep. Had my mum been alerted to the speed I was going prior to the accident, she would have hit the kill switch immediately, and the sheep would have been saved. As indeed would my ego, and the entire underside of the car.

But that accident had a profound effect on my driving. Because when the examiner told me the previous day that I had passed my test, what I actually heard was, "Congratulations Jeremy. You are, without any shadow of doubt, the single best driver I've ever seen".

I felt invincible, and the crash blatently proved I was not. As a result of this, and I'm touching a lot of wood here, I have not had a single accident on the public roads since.

This, then, is the dilemma. Had my mother killed the car's engine, I'd have hated her on a cellular level for trying to prevent something that I knew, with total certainty, was not going to happen. And then I would never have been shaken into realising that I needed to take more care. So I might very well have had another, much more serious crash later.

I really do believe that all new drivers should have a big one as soon as possible after passing their test. Because the aftershock of such an event will act as a giant psychological traction control system until full maturity is reached. In men, this is around 45 years later.

There's another reason too. With no danger in life, there are no thrills. And with no risk, there'll be no more Ellen MacArthurs, no more world championships for our rugby team and no real point in being alive anymore.