Another View: New driving laws

Our lawmakers have taken a major step forward in trying to reduce the carnage on our roads - but the question remains whether they have gone far enough.
Parliament last week passed new road-safety laws including raising the driver licence age to 16 and lowering the alcohol limit for drivers under 20 to zero. These two new measures come into force in August.
The country's MPs were unanimous in their vote, and their move has won praise from the likes of the Automobile Association. These new laws are significant and are aimed at driving down the carnage involving young people.
The Government has done the right thing in tackling this problem.
According to latest Ministry of Transport statistics, young drivers aged 15-24 were involved in 112 fatal traffic crashes, 755 serious injury crashes and 3617 minor injury crashes in 2009.
Of these crashes, drivers in this age group were at fault in 89 of the fatal crashes, 610 of the serious injury crashes and 2755 of the minor injury crashes, resulting in 102 deaths.
The total social cost of the crashes in which these drivers were at fault was $1.3 billion.
The ministry also points to a study that shows alcohol and young drivers are a lethal cocktail, which makes the new alcohol level for drivers under 20 a winner.
It is black and white and leaves no grey areas.
Any driver under 20 must not drive after consuming any alcohol.
The strong argument that young people do not handle alcohol as well as older motorists is compounded by the likelihood of finding themselves in a peer pressure or social situation that has huge potential to quickly get out of control.
The new driver licence age is an improvement but does not go far enough.
In an editorial in March last year, we commented on the fact the original bill had the age set at 17 and our view was that it should be 18.
We still believe 16 is still too young.
While the age of 15 has long been an accepted age limit, times - and the power of cars and availability of alcohol - have changed.
The AA, while generally welcoming the new laws, is concerned the period of time until a learner driver can graduate to a restricted licence has been left at six months.
Having said that, the Government is to be applauded for tackling this issue and taking aim at the problem drivers.
Other measures being introduced include repeat drink-drive offenders having a zero limit for three years after they get their licence back and courts being able to require repeat or serious drink-drive offenders to use alcohol interlocks.
All these new laws are aimed at making the roads safer for us. Let's hope they achieve this outcome.