Prepare Your Teen For Their Drive To Taupo Winterfest
16 August 2012
Prepare Your Teen For Their Drive To This Year’s Taupo Winterfest
Winter is here, and for parents with teenagers heading the Taupo Winterfest, it’s time to start thinking about how you can help your teen drivers prepare for a safe journey to and from the festival. Remember, it is not just advice for when they arrive at the event that is useful – but guidance for the drive there and back is vital too.
For some teens, this will be their first experience of driving long distances in potentially wet and icy conditions – a stressful experience for both the driver and the parent waiting at home.
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA)
has created a dedicated website to help parents with teen
drivers – www.safeteendriver.co.nz – which
offers a set of practical skills and free tools to encourage
parents to work alongside their teens to help identify and
manage risk situations, when driving by themselves.
“The Safe Teen Driver website not only provides useful
festival hazard advice to discuss with your teen, it also
suggests some different ways to talk about the risks so they
don’t think you’re over-reacting,” says NZTA State
highway manager Kaye Clark.
Mrs Clark suggests the following tips for driving to the Taupo Winterfest on 22 -26 August:
• If you’re going to this festival as
a family let your teen drive so they can practice with you
alongside them, in winter conditions.
•
Approaching Lake Taupo from the south there is likely to be
plenty of traffic on SH1 between Waiouru and Taupo. This
stretch on the Desert Road, South of Turangi, and
immediately north of Turangi on the edge of Lake Taupo can
be particularly windy.
• Be wary of ice on the
roads around the central plateau. The Desert Road (State
highway 1) is sometimes closed due to snow in the winter.
Before setting out check the NZTA website for information on
road closures.
• Following the recent eruption
of Tongariro, NZTA has been involved with cleaning the ash
deposits from the highways and State highway 1 (Desert
Road), however some still remains on State highway 46 from
Rangipo to its junction with State highway 47. There may be
some dust created in dry weather and roads may become
slippery in wet weather. Ash and debris has also accumulated
within one or two streams upstream of State highway 46 and
this may create mud flows affecting the highway itself. As a
precaution the NZTA are advising motorists not to stop or
park on State highway 46 at this time and to also keep
speeds down in wet weather.
• The Atiamuri
Bridge replacement project is under construction on SH1 39km
north of Taupo and temporary speed restrictions are in
place.
• Some sections of the SH1 north of
Taihape to south of Waioru may not see the sun until late in
the morning and can be icy even when the road appears to be
dry and ice free elsewhere. Talk to your teen about safe
driving in icy conditions and use the opportunity to
increase their skills in the challenging conditions found on
roads at altitude.
• Check opening times and
travel directions for the Manawatu gorge. There is no
overtaking on this section of highway so your teen will need
to be patient. If taking one of the alternative routes,
they should take their time and be courteous.
Other
key areas the NZTA encourages parents to discuss with their
teen drivers includes:
• Highlighting the
best route and busy areas
Where possible, parents should
thoroughly plan their teen’s route with them, so they can
concentrate on driving and not be distracted by navigating
• The importance of getting enough sleep
Even moderate sleep deprivation can be dangerous when
driving
• Driving at night
40% of crashes
involving young drivers happen when it’s dark
•
Driving with friends in the car
When a young driver has
two or more passengers in the car with them, they’re ten
times more likely to have a crash than if they were driving
alone. If those passengers are about the same age as the
driver, the risk is more than fifteen times higher than if
they were driving alone
Please visit www.safeteendriver.co.nz/festivalmap for more tips.
--
Notes to editors:
•
The Safe Teen Driver campaign, launched in June 2011, aims
to improve the poor road safety record of teenage drivers in
New Zealand.
• The campaign acknowledges that
learning to drive is not only a practical skill; it also
requires guidance from parents to help their teens assess
risks and make informed decisions about driving.
•
The website encourages parents to help their teen identify
and manage the highest risk situations they might face when
driving by themselves. The site offers parents a set of
tools to help them
o Think it – a quiz to help your
teen identify the risks they might face driving solo
o
Talk it – discussing the risks with your teen, without
starting an argument
o Try it – tips on how to go
driving with them when they first encounter the risks
o
The Plan – working with them to decide how to manage those
risks safely, before they have to deal with them
•
New Zealand has the highest road death rate in the OECD for
15-17 year olds, and the fourth highest road death rate for
18-20 year-olds.
• Data shows that New
Zealand’s teen drivers are most at risk of having a
serious crash in the first six to 12 months of driving solo
on a restricted licence. They are more vulnerable on the
road during this period than at any other time in their
lives.
• Each year from 2006-2010 there have
been around 1,300 crashes resulting in injury or death
involving teen drivers on a restricted licence.
•
The key conditions of the restricted licence are:
Restricted licence holders must not drive by themselves
between 10pm and 5am. If they are going to drive between
these times they must have a fully licensed supervisor in
the front passenger seat); and
Restricted licence
holders must not carry passengers unless they have a
supervisor with them (subject to some exceptions for spouses
and dependents).
• When a young driver has two
or more passengers in the car with them, they’re ten times
more likely to have a crash than if they were driving alone.
If those passengers are about the same age as the driver,
the risk is more than fifteen times higher than if they were
driving alone.
• 40% of crashes involving young
drivers (aged 15-24) happen when it’s dark.
•
Young drivers are disproportionately involved in crashes at
night (particularly Friday and Saturday nights).
•
Since the Graduated Driver Licensing System (GDLS) was
introduced in 1987, the number of teen drivers involved in
fatal crashes has dropped by about 70%.
Find
the latest transport news, information, and advice on our
website:
www.nzta.govt.nz
ENDS