The tough route

Ian Laurie and Jane Laurie beside Harry Laurie's memorial stone. Photo / Supplied

On a bad day Sandy Murphy wonders what her son would be doing if he were still alive.

"I think 'would he have been a doctor? Would he have been married and be having kids and all that sort of thing?"'

Her son Ed died two days before his 17th birthday when he took her car for a drive, lost control on a bend and skidded into a bridge. The car burst into flames and the family were warned not to view the body.

The accident happened almost six years ago but the memory remains as painful as ever. Sometimes it comes rushing back with news of another teenage road tragedy, like the crash in Waihi last weekend, which killed three people including the 17-year-old driver and his 16-year-old front-seat passenger.

Murphy, whose brother also died in a road accident when she was only 9, knows what it's like to lose close relatives this way. She says she's just grateful that her son's mistake did not create any other innocent victims.

"Ed was just a kid who did something dumb and all we can say is, 'thank God he didn't kill anybody else'. And that's the hard bit - there's so much anger."

Last weekend's accident and a subsequent Government promise to crack down on problem drivers has prompted another round of soul-searching and finger-pointing over New Zealand's poor record of clearly avoidable road deaths, often involving young people.

According to police, the driver in the Waihi crash, Dylan Perkinson, crossed the centre line just south of the town late on Friday night and hit an oncoming car.

He died in the crash, along with his friend Vance Williams and the other driver, Mark Sydney, a former soldier and father of three children.

Police said the teens were not wearing seatbelts and the driver was speeding and on a restricted licence (which forbids passengers and late-night driving). A Waikato Draught beer box and remnants of cans of a pre-mixed bourbon drink were found in the wreckage.

The debate intensified on Monday when Transport Minister Stephen Joyce released a report showing "a core of problem drivers" were responsible for a third of road deaths.

The Ministry of Transport analysis found that high-risk drivers killed 642 people (35 per cent of all road deaths) between 2005 and 2009. It defined high-risk factors as unlicensed or disqualified drivers, those with previous speed and alcohol offences and high-risk behaviour (e.g. drink driving, fleeing police or street racing) at the time of the crash.

The report said that when at-fault (but not high-risk) young drivers were added, the combined total made up 53 per cent of drivers responsible for fatal crashes.

Murphy feels her son belongs firmly in the second category. He was a gifted academic at Rathkeale College in Masterton who excelled at English and science and wanted to become a doctor. The school had even hinted to her that he might be head boy the next year.

But on the day of the crash he was in a bad state, worried about a relationship and refusing to go to school. He took his mother's powerful V6 Holden Commodore automatic - ignoring his own 1970 Ford Escort Mark II - and went for a drive.

Eventually he answered her calls and reluctantly promised to come home. "He said, 'don't worry Mum, I'll be fine' - and that was the last thing he said."

She had sat by the phone, becoming increasingly anxious. She phoned the police, who promised to look out for him.

A policeman arrived about 20 minutes later as she waited with her mother. She could tell the news as soon as she saw his face.

Murphy generally agrees with the moves the Government has already announced to target high-risk and young drivers - a zero drink drive limit for young drivers and repeat drink drivers, raising the driving age to 16, tougher licence tests, alcohol interlocks for repeat drink drivers and doubling the prison penalties for dangerous drivers who cause death.

She particularly likes the idea of better training, based on a minimum 120 hours of learning to drive.

A friend who is a driving instructor told her that one of the biggest challenges was to get teenagers to concentrate 100 per cent on the road.

"Kids are so distracted because they're wired to immediately text and reply. And they're so busy in those later years at school - they've often got a relationship going, they've got sport, they've got a job after school, they've got exams coming up and all that sort of thing.

"Quite often when she's instructing she'll say to a kid, 'are you here in the car or are you somewhere else at the moment? Stop thinking about the next thing you're supposed to be doing and concentrate on your driving'.

"Because they're not up to autopilot stage and you've got to really drill them that they've got to be watchful and constantly searching for problems."

She doesn't want to see the driving age raised any higher than 16, saying many parents cannot drive their children to after-school activities, especially in country areas.

But she thinks too many parents are turning a blind eye to the restricted licence rules, which do not allow drivers to carry passengers.

"That was one thing we were really tough on with our daughter and our son, because I'd lost a brother in an accident. I kept saying to them, 'if you take other kids in the car and you have an accident and you kill them, how the hell are you going to live with yourself?'

"I used to have arguments with other parents because they'd say, 'how are the kids going to get to the game? And if four cars go, they'll all start racing with each other.

"And I'd say, 'well, somebody's got to be the parent here and actually put your foot down'."

Ian Laurie was photographing a wedding in Waihi last Saturday when news of the crash came through.

His own son Harry died in the town six years ago this month, aged 15. He was a front-seat passenger, travelling with a 17-year-old driver who lost control as he fled from police and smashed into a fence. Harry was wearing a seat belt but a railing went through the windscreen and killed him.

Laurie says the driver, John Alastair Douglas, had been drinking when he tried to avoid the police. After the crash he ran away again without stopping to check on Harry "which really pissed a lot of people off, including myself".

Douglas was sentenced to six years in jail for manslaughter. He is now out of prison but is no longer in contact with the family.

Laurie says Harry was a keen fisherman and a top rugby player, who had already caught the eye of former All Black selector-turned-Waihi College First XV coach Ross Cooper. "He was a good kid, very sports-minded ... didn't like school all that much."

Like Murphy, he wonders if many teenagers are mentally ready to drive.

"You're not really responsible until you're in [your] 20s," he says, admitting that he used to drink and drive when he was young.

"They sit there behind these PlayStations, going fast, then the next thing they're on the road. I don't think they appreciate the damage they can do or how easy it is to get killed or kill someone else.

He agrees with the zero limit for drivers under 20, saying alcohol companies target young men who get "absolutely trashed" very easily.

"Before you know it you've had half a dozen cans ... and, for a young person, that's probably quite a bit."

He thinks the Government should probably rethink its opposition to lowering the drinking limit from 80mg to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

"Since Harry died, we don't even consider driving and drinking, regardless of how much we've had."

Automobile Association motoring affairs manager Mike Noon approves of most of the Government's moves so far but wants it to go further, with roadside saliva testing for drugs and specialist drug and alcohol courts to make sure problem drivers get treatment instead of languishing in jail.

He strongly agrees with Murphy's view that many parents either don't understand the conditions on a restricted licence or don't take them seriously enough.

Most young people know they should never get in the car with a driver who has been drinking, he says.

But many teens and their parents don't seem to understand that they should never get in a car with someone who doesn't have a full licence.

Noon says the Government could save a lot more lives by investing more in safer roads.

He quotes Australian roading expert Eric Howard, who estimates that if New Zealand spent $150 million a year for 10 years on safety improvements such as wire barriers and rumble strips (which alert dozing drivers that they are drifting off the road) we would save 80 to 90 lives each year.

Peter Coleman, a psychologist who specialises in youth offending, is more wary of the Government's plan. He likes the zero alcohol limit and attempt to restrict high-powered vehicles but warns that it will struggle to reach hardcore driving offenders with threats of tougher rules or more severe penalties.

"I think the general political response is to identify the villain and think of harsher ways of punishing them but that won't bring about a change. It hasn't in other areas of criminal behaviour.

"It's educative and long-term. It's a bit like the child abuse issues we're facing now - whatever measures you take to counteract them are unlikely to be productive inside five years."

Noon also believes the changes will only work if the driving public takes them to heart.

"People don't wear their seatbelts in their car because they're scared of getting a fine or demerit points. They wear them because they know they save lives - that's why Mum buckles the kids in."

Joyce says the Government is improving roads as fast as possible but can't do everything at once. Top priorities include high-risk stretches of highways such as Waikato to Cambridge, Levin to Wellington, east of Tauranga and north of Auckland.

He says the new emphasis doesn't mean he is ignoring more mundane reasons for the other half of fatal crashes, ranging from driver fatigue to misjudging road and weather conditions.

"Focusing on the two groups that have by far the highest impact - and an impact out of all proportion with their numbers - does make a lot of sense if you're trying to get the road toll down."

He accepts that changing driver behaviour rather than passing new laws is the answer but says strong, unambiguous rules are the best way to achieve that.

"The nil limit for young drivers has quite strong potential because there is certainly anecdotal evidence that young drivers and their passengers sometimes take the view that the least drunk person drives home. I think we could get to the point where we use peer pressure, so if you see someone drinking you just refuse to get into the car with them because you know that's against the law - there's no ambiguity.

"For young people having that clarity in a party-type environment is probably going to be helpful."

In Waihi, Ian Laurie and his wife Jane marked the sixth anniversary of Harry's death a few weeks ago in their usual way, with a quiet barbecue with friends by the memorial they made in the garden.

He waves aside apologies for digging up the past again. "We live with it every day, mate. It gets a bit easier but it doesn't go away."

Sandy Murphy feels the same. "People say time heals but I think you just get better at it."

Her heart went out this week to 17-year-old Bryce Sydney, who told a newspaper after the crash that he now hates his former friend, Kane Stewart, one of the four teenagers in the car that caused his father's death.

"You just hope that those people, at some point, can make peace with that. Because those are the things that will pull you to pieces."

Road risks

Passengers killed or seriously injured with at-fault high-risk drivers between 2005 and 2009.

526 of the 931 passengers killed - more than half - were 15 to 24-year-olds

aged 15-19 - 337

aged 20-24 - 189

25 and up - 405

Who they are

35 per cent of drivers in fatal crashes are classed as "high-risk" (unlicensed, disqualified, previous speed or alcohol offences, engaged in risky behaviour)

52 per centof these high risk drivers are under 30

83 per cent are men

53 per cent of drivers in all fatal crashes are either high-risk drivers or young drivers who cause the crash by making a mistake

When they crash

29 per cent of fatal crashes occur during the day

51 per cent of fatal crashes occur in the evening (6-10pm)

64 per cent of fatal crashes occur at night (after 10pm)When they crash

Source: Ministry of Transport