Young Drivers

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29911, 27 August 1962, Page 8

Young Drivers

In May last year the Minister of Transport (Mr McAlpine) surprised many by telling the half-yearly meeting of the Road Safety Council that “young per“sons as a class were very “ efficient and competent “ drivers—much more so “ than persons of an older “age”. Mr McAlpine seems to have revised this opinion (which seemed to be against the weight of evidence and the beliefs of his own officers); for in Wellington on Wednesday he said that teen-age drivers were one of two groups involved in road accidents quite disproportionate to their numbers. Many youthful drivers, he said, coupled inexperience with over-confidence and lack of responsibility. The fact was, Mr McAlpine declared, that the accident rate of the under-20’s was “ nearly two times and a “half the average rate for “ all drivers ”. Published New Zealand statistics of road accidents according to

the ages of drivers are in five-year groups; and though the proneness to accidents of drivers in the 15-to-20 group is a reasonable deduction it is not conclusive evidence, because the numbers of drivers in the respective age groups are not stated. Since last year the Transport Department may have—and should have—armed itself with more satisfactory statistics. The 15-to-20 group should certainly be broken down into single-year groups if essential information is to be available, for instance, to determine whether 15 years is too young to be allowed to drive a highpowered vehicle in presentday traffic. Mr McAlpine said on Wednesday that he did not contemplate legislation against any particular class of persons or age group. Statistical evidence may yet cause Mr McAlpine, in the interests of road safety, to revise this opinion, too. The sooner the evidence is obtained, and made public, the better.