Kerre Woodham: Kids must prove maturity to earn licence

The best comment I heard this week, while we were debating raising the driving age, was that kids who were suspended from school, or who ran foul of the law, should be denied the privilege of getting their driver's licence until they had a trouble-free year. Only then could they earn the right to drive.

Waikato Police had a particularly bad time this week: three serious car crashes, three people dead and others seriously injured. In the most serious accident, a 15-year-old learner driver failed to take a bend, crashed into a truck and killed the truck driver and one of the passengers in her car. Two of the other passengers are seriously injured.

In one of the other incidents, another 15-year-old crashed the stolen car he was driving into a patrol car, injuring the police officer.

This happened on the same day that a Federated Farmers' spokesman warned Parliament that raising the driving age to 16 would isolate country kids, leaving them unable to work or play sports. I know from visiting Starship that being in intensive care is pretty isolating.

Study after study has shown that teenagers simply aren't equipped to handle emotion control, risk assessment and hazard management unless they are given intensive training - and that isn't happening for most of our young drivers.

It seems inevitable that the driving age will go up to 16, and even that is young by international standards, but the quality of driver training also needs to improve.

Hence my support for the idea that kids who have fallen foul of authority should jump through hoops before they can get behind the wheel of a car.

A kid with a bad attitude slinking down the footpath is bad enough. A kid with a bad attitude in control of two tonnes of steel is a lot worse.