Friday, 05 March 2010
IT’S meant to be a move that saves lives, but many Eastern Bay teenagers and road safety advocates have little faith in the Government’s decision to raise the driving age to 16.
Some, like Trident High School 15-year-old Justin Liddington have a very clear view of the issue: “It sucks … It’s not the younger people who are crashing most. It’s the 18-year-olds. They’re doing all the street racing.”
But 17-year-old Michaela Meiring said she believed 15 was too early to be driving on the road.
“Even 16 is a bit young.”
Whakatane driving instructor Mary Lou Bruys has taught people to drive in Whakatane for 12 years. Before the Government’s Safer Journeys package was announced on Wednesday she said she believed the driving age should remain at 15.
“I don’t think a year is going to make much difference to road deaths,” she said.
Driver education was the critical factor, not a driver’s age.
She said the Government should concentrate on other options, such as placing restrictions on vehicle power for young drivers.
Defensive driving courses were beneficial and it might be worthwhile requiring drivers to re-sit their driver licences every 10 years.
Eastern Bay road safety committee co-ordinator Maurice Tooke said he supported retaining the age at which young people could begin learning to drive at 15, but he also wanted more resources put into driver education and training.
They needed “individual attention tailored to their personality” to learn to cope with their own driving temperament.
“I believe we’ve got enough brain capacity at 15 to do it with good teaching. Good education is the answer.”
The Government’s proposal to require 120 hours of supervised driving at the learner stage would help.
“I think secondary schools should be totally pro-active so students are skilled drivers when they leave at 16 or 17.
“Age is irrelevant if we do proper training.”
Driving simulators were expensive and not widely available but he would like to see them used more in driver training.
Former Whakatane High School head girl and Students Against Drunk Driving representative Tegan Wilson said the driving age should remain at 15 as younger drivers were not the problem. Older age groups were more responsible for road accidents attributable to drink driving.
It was simplistic and unrealistic to expect raising the driving age “a year or two” to reduce the road toll.
Raising the driving age closer to that at which young people could legally buy alcohol - 18 - would, instead, potentially have people learning to drive while they were also experimenting with alcohol, and at an age when parental supervision was less likely to be available.
Raising the driving age would be especially awkward for rural dwellers. It would make it so much harder for them to pursue their independence, and be a “hassle for parents” who would have to transport them back and forth from town for longer.
However, Eastern Bay road safety committee chairwoman Rachael Byrne said raising the legal driving age was an “urgent necessity”.
But she was also a strong advocate for “rigorous compulsory driver training in schools” that began at age 16.
“New Zealand has a negative driving culture which needs to change. Focusing on enhanced driver training is where all road safety programmes begin.”
Mrs Byrne said she supported restricting young people from driving cars too fast and powerful for them to handle.