Francesca Rudkin: The rates of youth road deaths are terrifying

Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

I’m not a perfect parent. I’ve learnt a lot on the job, but one thing I got right was making the call that I was not the right person to teach our children to drive – for both my sake, my children’s sake, and other drivers' sake.

It’s got nothing to do with my driving ability. It's to do with temperament and patience and bravery – all characteristics my partner and their father excels in.

When your child gains their licence, you feel two conflicting emotions at once. Excitement over the fact your days as an Uber driver are coming to an end – even if your children had been good at getting around on buses, once they have their restricted license it does make life easier when they can drive themselves to an appointment, or pop to the supermarket to grab you a few things.

The other emotion is utter terror that your child is being unleashed on the roads. Are they ready? Will they cope with multi lanes and peak hour traffic? Will they stay off their phones?

And most importantly: do they realise they are not as good a driver as they think they are? Passing a test does not make you an expert – knowledge, time and experience are needed to work towards this. And even then, we’re not all experts!

As a parent I know the stats: 18–24-year-olds have the highest rate of road deaths in New Zealand.

They are nearly three times as likely to die in road crashes as 18–24-year-olds in Australia.

And this terrifies me.

The AA Research Foundation released some interesting research today.

They have examined driver licence systems in different countries and have highlighted key differences with New Zealand. It identifies measures with beneficial outcomes for novice drivers that could strengthen New Zealand’s licensing system.

There are 5 areas they would like the government to consider as they establish priorities for the next three years in its Road Safety Objectives Document due out later in the year.

They suggest we should:

1. Extend learner period from 6 months to 12 months to give novice drivers more time to accumulate supervised driving experience and develop safer practices

2. Mandatory supervised driving hours. Most Aussie and US states require 50-20 hours (including night hours) to be logged. A past Swedish study showed novice drivers with 120 hours of supervised driving experience were involved in 35% fewer crashes than those with 40-50 hours.

3. Sit a Hazard Perception Test to enhance young drivers' abilities to anticipate and react to potential hazards. The tests are undertaken in a safe environment such as a simulator or using video clips.

4. Zero blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit until their full license. Currently this is only for those under the age of 20.

5. And finally, tougher penalties for traffic offenses. The idea here would be that novice drivers start off with a lower threshold for demerit points, and any offences stay on their record for a longer time. The aim is this would serve as a deterrent against risky behaviours.

While it has made life easier for us for our son to get his learners licence at 16 and his restricted 6 months later – all I want is for my kid to get home safely. If we can reduce these statistics by making changes to the licencing system, give young drivers the opportunity to gain more experience and knowledge, then why wouldn’t you?

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