P-Plater Deaths: Are the laws to blame?
December 7th 2006 13:40
A grieving mother at the funeral for her son, a recent P plater victim
The last two weeks has seen building heat over the issue of driving teenagers and the restrictions that should be placed upon them to lower driver and passenger deaths. New South Wales and particular Sydney has seen the most attention, in light of a building number of what has been labelled by the media as "P-Plater deaths." With these deaths and affiliated injuries numbering well into the tens and twenties within the last month or two, the question has been posed - does NSW have outdated driver's license legislation?
In comparison to the rest of Australia, yes. But that has to be taken in a global context. Australian driver's license legislation is based on state authority rather than federal, but all states and territories following the same graded scheme - Learners licenses available at 16, followed by Provisional 1 at 17, Provisional 2 after a year, and then full driver's license two years after that (for more info, visit here). In comparison to the rest of the world, this is pretty lenient - some US states allow people to start driving at 14. So the issue isn't so much where NSW fit in with the rest of the world, but rather where it fits in with other states.
States around Australia are making several reforms. Starting next year, Western Australian will place a 12am to 5am curfew for provisional drivers or "P-platers" in their first six months. Victoria has increased the minimum age for P-platers from 17 to 18. Passenger number and age limits are being placed by Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland. The last reform NSW made? P-platers can't drive high-powered vehicles of any kind, whether it be turbocharged, supercharged or eight cylinder. Yet, with the highest population in Australia, New South Wales is also seeing the highest amount of P-plater deaths. Unfortunately, it is no longer uncommon to turn on the news and hear about a P-plate driver dying, or a P-plater crashing into someone else.
Unfortunately there are no excusing factors for the results. It is the end of the year, and as the majority of teenagers turn 17, they are naturally going to attempt to get their Provisional license, but that doesn't explain the 100% fatality rise since this time last year. Being a part of the 17-25 age bracket myself, I have mixed feelings on the subject. There should definitely be some measures to prevent the amount of deaths by P platers, but there's always that part of me that wants there to be another factor in the accident - a truck driver, the P plater being drunk (in NSW, there is no tolerance legislation in regards to alcohol limit for P platers), speeding - anything that could make me feel safer as a driver. Yet, there aren't. Stalin's famous line "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic," may have been a reference to war, but is it so far off that it couldn't apply in this situation too?
To save this post transforming too much from an objective news article to biased drivel, I now open the floor up. What are your thoughts, and feelings on the subject and what, if anything, can be done to stop it?
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Comment by Campbell
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Curfews, passenger limits, and even vehicle restrictions (in my opinion) are not the solution.
Comment by Jimbo
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