A fresh look at how new drivers are trained in New Zealand could be an opportunity to change driving culture and make the roads safer place, the AA has said.
‘Identifying opportunities to improve the driver licensing system’ was one of the four main actions included in the Government’s Road Safety Objectives document released in October.
The latest Ministry of Transport figures show drivers under 25 were involved in 96 of 337 fatal crashes in 2022.
“Having this proportion of young people being involved in fatal crashes is not the norm in other countries – people aged 18-24 are nearly three times more likely to die on the roads here than in Australia,” said AA road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen.
“There are many ways the licensing system could be changed to produce better prepared, safer drivers and, by doing that, the AA thinks we can make a real difference in turning New Zealand’s shocking crash numbers around.
“It is great to the Government looking to take action to improve how people learn to drive.”
A recent AA Research Foundation paper identified measures with beneficial outcomes for novice drivers that could be used to strengthen New Zealand’s three-stage Graduated Driver Licensing System (GDLS) after benchmarking the GDLS against overseas schemes.
“This study has identified measures that could reduce harm on the roads, and we think they are worth taking a closer look at to see if they could work here,” added Dylan.
“We need to give novice drivers the best possible chance of developing skills and habits that will make our roads safer.”
