NZ's teenage driving restrictions viewed by Australians

1.00pm

Western Australian road safety authorities may follow New Zealand's lead and look at implementing tough restrictions on young drivers.

Dorothy Begg, of Otago University's injury prevention research unit in New Zealand, said yesterday that the WA state government was expected to consider many of the restrictions applying in New Zealand.

Dr Begg told the Sunday Times newspaper in Perth that the death toll on New Zealand roads had plunged after unprecedented licensing controls were placed on young drivers, and that the same measures could work in Australia.

Dr Begg said that contrary to expectations, tougher laws on licences were widely accepted by New Zealand's teenage drivers.

"Today, they don't realise there ever was a different way to get a licence," she said.

In 1987 New Zealand became the first country in the world to introduce a comprehensive graduated licensing system, which included night curfews and passenger restrictions.

Learner drivers are not allowed behind the wheel without supervision for at least six months.

They then graduate to a restricted 18-month licence which precludes the holder from driving unsupervised or carrying teenage passengers between 10pm and 5am.

The radical approach was a reaction to the disproportionately large number of young people dying in road crashes, and Dr Begg said the graduated licensing was the main reason for a fall in road deaths involving people aged 15-24 from 300 in 1986 to 101 in 2002.

"There are certainly a lot of kids out there who would be dead today if graduated licensing had not been introduced in New Zealand," she said. "There was an immediate impact on the road toll in 1987."

Deaths and hospital admissions had continued to decline in New Zealand, she said.

Western Australia's probationary licensing system is due to be reviewed next month.

The review is expected to consider curfews, age restrictions for passengers in cars driven by unsupervised P-platers, and zero alcohol tolerance, the newspaper reported.

Dr Begg warned that if WA went down the same path as New Zealand it also should include stiff penalties for drivers who ignored the law.

"We had useless penalties at first, which basically allowed these kids to laugh in the faces of police," she said. "So we got changes in 1999 which gave the laws some teeth through strict penalties for non-compliance."

- NZPA