Eric Thompson: An honour not worth celebrating

We have the ninth worse road death rate per capita. Photo / APN

Well, it's about time. An international body, the International Transport Forum (ITF) has agreed with what I've been banging on about for years - Kiwis are crap drivers.

In fact we're worse than that, we're downright dangerous and a menace to anyone who shares the road with us. The ITF report states New Zealand has the seventh-highest ratio of deaths per billion vehicle kilometres travelled and is the ninth highest in deaths per capita.

That puts us up there with Cambodia, Malaysia, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Lithuania. All countries where most of the time you don't need a license to drive. Here we have to sit a test. I'd like to meet the fool who thought it was okay to hand out a certificate to drive a tonne of killing machine, simply based on answering a series of multi-guess questions.

Maybe our driving standards are so poor because our testing system is so poor. It doesn't take rocket science to deduce that, to improve driving standards and deaths, you have to educate the nut behind the wheel.

Our roads are the equivalent of blacktop goat tracks compared to most of the developed world yet there's no system in place to train young, old, new or immigrant drivers how to deal with our particular conditions.

The AA bloke's statement in the Press that, "Safer Journeys [new AA safety programme] recognises that drivers will make mistakes, but it's the road or the roadside that determines the outcome of those mistakes. Cars, roads and roadsides need to be protective" just about sums up why the problem will never be fixed.

Put the blame somewhere else why don't you - again. First, we had all that nonsense that speed kills, which it doesn't, bad driving does, and now, apparently it's roads that kill us. God knows what they'll come up with next.

If you train a driver that on a narrow road you have drive more slowly and with care, rather than getting them to tick a box on a piece of paper, it might just sink in.

The incumbent rulers of this country recently had the best chance in lord knows how long to rip up the current driving licence legislation and deliver something really worthwhile. But all we got was a soggy chip approach that will achieve nothing.

I have now come to the conclusion that to become a politician, not only is there a requirement to have a slightly wonky moral compass, but you also have to be neutered.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Implement the recommendations below and watch the problem solve itself.

* The test before you get in a car is NOT multi guess; it has to have written answers.

* Raise the driving age to 17 for a learner's plate, and then only for a car up to 1300cc. And the driver must have had at least three driving lessons from a qualified driving instructor before they are allowed to actually drive the car.

* To get a restricted licence the driver must show proof of at least two defensive driving lessons from an approved training organisation over a minimum 12 months prior.

* If any traffic infringement occurs during that 12 months, the driver starts from day one all over again.

* Full licence granted only after being assessed by a traffic officer sitting in the car during a test.

* Only on gaining a full licence, can the driver buy any car they want.

* Compulsory third party insurance.

And ditch the advertising agency that came up with the 'driving's in the blood' campaign. If anything summed up what a bunch of dorks we are when it comes to driving campaigns that one did and would have won a Golden Lion at the The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. That's right, get your Dad to teach you how to drive and have an accident.