Hon Harry Duynhoven
Minister for Transport Safety

Tuesday 24 April 2007

Speech Notes
United Nations Global Road Safety Week – Young and Novice drivers

Address to the New Zealand Chapter of the Australasian College of Road Safety

Good afternoon everyone.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today as part of the United Nations Global Road Safety Week. It is fitting that a theme very dear to my heart – the issue of young drivers – has been chosen.

This is an issue for New Zealand and the world. OECD statistics show that road crashes are the biggest killer of young people between the ages of 15 and 24.

I am regularly asked about the Government's continuing work with respect to this issue. Predictably the causes of most crashes involving young people are inexperience and immaturity.

Shortly, Ben Lewis-Evans from the Ministry of Transport will give a presentation, which will show the latest statistical information on young driver crashes.

The other disturbing factor, and one that is undoubtedly contributing to the high crash rate for young people, is non-compliance with the conditions of the Graduated Drivers Licensing System.

Many young people do not comply with what is regarded internationally as a fundamentally very good system for managing crash risk among young and novice drivers.

In an effort to address some of these problems, it was decided that a nationwide series of workshops would be held to hear the public’s thoughts about road safety.

Last year’s ‘See you there … Safe As’ workshops were a highly successful public engagement exercise conducted by the Ministry of Transport. The workshops enabled road safety experts and members of the public to identify road safety issues and to put forward their thoughts and ideas on ways to reduce the road toll.

Participants identified young and novice drivers as a major issue. Drivers between the age of 15 and 19 are seven times more likely to crash than drivers in the 45 to 49 age group. Equally, drivers between 20 and 24 are three times more likely to crash than those in the 45 to 49 age group.

At the Safe As workshops, overwhelming concern was expressed about young and novice drivers and many suggestions were made. These suggestions, coupled with the analysis by the Ministry of Transport’s policy staff and other road safety experts, have resulted in the development and release of the Government's Road Safety Policy Statement last December.

This document spells out the road safety problems that New Zealand is facing, including young and novice drivers, and offers a range of possible ways forward which are being evaluated. I expect to see advice on policy options in the next couple of months.

There is no single way to change the behaviour of young people. It has to be a combination of education, advertising, and a penalty regime which is effective.

Earlier I spoke about the Graduated Driver Licensing System and the fact that we need to ensure greater compliance. The current system is not creating sufficient incentives to comply. Young drivers tend to ignore the $400 fines because they can not pay them. We are now looking at changing the demerit points system right across the board. This change could be one way of dealing with young offenders who persistently flout the law since the loss of licence is a real imposition.

Speed, coupled with inexperience, is another problem with young people and right now an interdepartmental group is looking at ways of targeting speedsters.

While New Zealand has a good system for detecting drivers impaired by alcohol, we have limited ability to detect drivers impaired by drugs. Late last year the government announced that it was introducing a compulsory roadside drug impairment test. The Safe As workshops revealed a great deal of public concern about drugged drivers and that is why we have taken this step.

Another potential solution I applaud is Compulsory Third Party Property Damage Insurance. At my request, Ministry of Transport officials have been investigating the viability of a Compulsory Third Party Property Damage Insurance regime for New Zealand. As part of this, my officials have reviewed Compulsory Third Party Property Damage Insurance regimes in a number of countries overseas to see whether they might work in New Zealand.

I believe that a third party regime that charges premiums based on risk would restrict access of young and novice drivers to more powerful cars, as they would be required to pay higher premiums to use such vehicles.

As I said earlier, inexperience, immaturity, and a failure to appreciate or simply to ignore risk is the major problem with young and novice drivers. Why, for example, people text when they are driving is beyond my comprehension, but I see it myself on a regular basis.

Young people need to understand the nature of risks and to realise that they are mortal and that driving is not just a computer game where the characters who are killed in the game come to life for the replay. It is so sad to see young people dying on our roads and the grieving parents, relatives and friends, not to mention the significant cost to innocent victims.

I would like to congratulate you on your work to save lives on New Zealand and Australian roads. Networking organisations such as yours make a very valuable contribution to society.

Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today.

ENDS

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