Safer Journeys: focus on young drivers

The government will implement a number of measures designed to reduce the number of fatal and serious crashes involving young drivers as one of the first actions of the new 10 year road safety strategy.


Transport Minister Steven Joyce says improving the safety of young drivers is the government's top road safety priority.


"A disproportionate number of young New Zealanders die on our roads - young Kiwis have a 60% higher fatality rate on the roads than young Australians."


Young drivers make up 14.5 percent of New Zealand's population and 16 percent of all licensed drivers, but in 2008 they were involved in around 38 percent of all serious injury crashes.


And between 2000 and 2008 the number of people killed or seriously injured in a crash where a young driver was at fault has increased by about 17 percent.


"As a first step towards tackling this problem, I will take a package of measures from the strategy to Cabinet this month aimed at improving the safety of young drivers," says Mr Joyce.


The actions in the March package include:
 

• Raising the driving age to 16
• Tightening up the restricted licence test to encourage novice drivers do around 120 hours of supervised practice, before driving solo
• Improving the road safety education available to young people and increasing access to it
• Investigating vehicle power restrictions for young drivers.

A second package, focused on the impact of alcohol on our roads, will be discussed by Cabinet next month. This will include a plan to reduce the youth blood alcohol limit to zero.


Mr Joyce says even small amounts of alcohol can impair driving, particularly for young people. The crash risk for young drivers rises significantly even at very low BAC levels.


"All of the measures being considered by Cabinet have been successful in other countries. We've been particularly keen to learn from Australia, which has a much stronger road safety record, both generally and particularly among young people.


"Across the Tasman, for example, young Australians have a road fatality rate of 13 per 100,000 of population, while young New Zealanders have a fatality rate of 21 per 100,000 of population."


Legislation will be in place by the end of the year.