P07129

                                Driving Age

At the start of the year the government announced that they were raising the driving age to sit the learner licence from 15 years old to 16 years old. Also changing the restricted test by making it harder. They’re doing this because young drivers aged 15-24 are causing a lot of road crashes and it is only getting higher. Alcohol is also a major part of young drivers in accidents. Also how a Defensive Driving course can teach young drivers hot to be safe on the road and avoid crashes. I think that the changes being made are a good idea as hundreds of teenagers are involved in road accidents causing deaths and serious injuries every year.

Raising the driving age. Is it a good idea? More and more teenagers are involved in road accidents every year and something needed to be done about it. On March 2^nd TVNZ posted on their website that the government was changing the age limit to sit your learners from 15 to 16. The change is happening on August the 1st 2011. Other changes include, making the restricted licence harder to get as the Ministry of Transport say that learner drivers need at least 120 hours of driving before they sit their restricted because it reduces their crash rate by 40%. This is a very important stage of learning important driving skills to become safe on New Zealand roads. The government also want to double the maximum sentence, lowering under 20 year old drivers blood alcohol limit to zero and to add alcohol interlocks to steering wheels of cars so they have to breathe into it before the car ignition starts. This will stop drunk drivers in driving and being a great hazard.  These changes will most likely be made in 2012. These changes should lower crash rates in New Zealand as the consequences are higher and licensing is also harder.

Young drivers aged 15-24 in New Zealand are causing multiple road crashes. In 2009 15-24 year olds were involved in 112 fatal road crashes, 755 serious injury crashes and 3,617 minor injury crashes. Of these crashes these young drivers were at fault with 89 of the fatal crashes, 610 of the serious injury crashes and 2,755 of the minor crashes. These crashes resulted in 102 deaths, 797 seriously injured and 4,149 minor injured people. This showed that young drivers are a hazard to New Zealand roads and costing tax payers a great deal of money. The social costs by 15-24 year old drivers is $1.3 billion which is 1/3 of the socail cost associated  with all injury crashes. In 2010 however there were 67 deaths, 506 seriously injured crashes in the year to september. These crashes involved al least one driver aged 15-19. this makes New Zealands accident rate 60% higher than Australia. So the governments idea to try cut the number of teens in road accidents seem like a very good idea and should save a lot of lives if these laws are obided by.

Alcohol is the most commonly used drug in New Zealand and the average age to start drinking in New Zealand is 13.6 years old. The number of drinks consumed per occasion has increased for 14-17 year olds to heavy drinkers compared to general consumers of alcohol. This is probably why alcohol is a major part of young drivers in accidents. Alcohol gives a false sense of confidence and impairs reactions, co-ordination, jugdement of speed, time and distance and also impairs consentration. Alcohol is the cause of 60% of all teen deaths in car accidents. In 2006 19% of young drivers aged 16020 years old were killed because of alcohol. Also every year young drivers cause nearly half of all alcohol related road crashes. Therefore as alcohol is a huge part of teenage road accidents in New Zealand the idea for alcohol interlocks added to steering whells of cars may lower the crash rate for teenagers involved in alcohol related crashes.

There is a solution that the government have in place now and that is the defensive driving course for restricted drivers or driving 120 hours on your learners as well as lessons that you can take to help you pass your restricted. The defensive driving course can be taken after having your restricted for 6 months and takes 9 hours to complete in several different lessons. The defensive driving course gets your full drivers licence 6 months earlier making you able to get it within 1 year of having your restricted. It teaches you about inattention, emotions, driving conditions, drugs and alcohol and peer pressure which are significant factors leading to car crashes. It also helps you with searching and assesing which therefore reduces the risk of the driver causing/ being part of an accident. This website will give you more information about the defensive driving course and the benefits of it, www.aa.co.nz/motoring/licensingandtraining/pages/default.aspx.  As 90% of all crashes are attributed to driver error defensive driving helps to avoid these crashes and react quicker and when you do react knowing what to do to avoid it. So to sum it up defensive driving is a good choice for young drivers to help avoid accidents and to teach them to be safe on the road.

Statistics prove that young drivers are a hazard on New Zealand roads and the new laws coming out are providing safety to New Zealand drivers if these laws are obided. Even if there is multiple road accidents a year caused by driver error, alcohol or not enough driving skill there is solutions and options to take to help minimize errors and road accidents and to teach young drivers about safety on the road. Also since teenagers are more likely to crash while on their restricted then their learners it is important to visit websites or the right shops to give you options about defensive driving and to help teens develop driving skills to save their lives and stay out of road accidents to keep New Zealands road accidents down.