Editorial: Driving, texting, dying

Rotorua Coroner Wallace Bain is right to call for better education for young drivers about the dangers of driving.

His call came as he released his findings yesterday into the death of Rotorua teenager Jesse Howe in 2010.

Jesse was a passenger in a van full of 12 teenagers driven by Aaron Gourlay. The circumstances of that last trip between Reporoa and Rotorua were so dangerous the Coroner has been able to identify at least nine factors that did contribute, or could have contributed, to the crash that injured 11 people and claimed Jesse's life.

Dr Bain said any of those factors could on their own have caused Jesse's death, but he particularly identified texting while driving.

It's not hard to see why. Given the road conditions, the fact it was the open road, and the time of night, the added distraction of carrying out two text conversations, as the driver did, would have increased the risk exponentially.

It might seem overly obvious to many that texting and driving or failing to wear a seat belt are dangerous, but any road police officer would be able to tell you the message hasn't got through to everybody.

Dr Bain has recommended an increase in youth education and public education about the dangers of driving while distracted, overloading of vehicles, driving to the weather conditions and compulsory wearing of seatbelts.

Even if it seems like common sense to most, it can only help to have young drivers at least talking about driver safety.

The more they understand about that, the safer the roads for all of us.