Chaperons for learner drivers?

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 1

Chaperons for learner drivers?

PA Wellington If Ministry of Transport proposals go ahead, learner drivers may have to, wait until their late, teens or early 20s before they can obtain a driver’s licence.. The Ministry proposes a three-stage licensing programme for learner drivers which will mean that learners will have to be chaperoned for their first few driving years. “It takes about 100,000 kilometres or five to six years of average driving to reach an acceptably low accident point,” said the assistant director of the Road Transport Division of the Ministry, Mr John Toomath. “Drivers are much more vulnerable during this period than for the rest of their lives. With any constructive driving scheme you need a greater control in these first five or six years,” he said. The driving scheme the Ministry proposes would involve formalising the present system by not allowing learners to drive solo for their training period. “In the first stage the person would always be accompanied by another driver for the first six months. In the second

phase you'could drive solo during - the day ■ provided you ’had passed necessary test, but you must still • be - accompanied at night,” said Mr Toomath. ’

■He said that'accident rates had proved that night driving was three times as dangerous as driving during the day. Factors such as reduced visibility, different driving techniques, and higher alcohol consumption were all associated with nighttime driving. The Ministry would like to see this second period last at least a year, Mr Toomath said. ■ “For social reasons, it would be extremely difficult to impress a restriction for that period. Many people do not start driving until they are 16—that would make them 23 before they got their licence,” he said, Asked whether solo driving could be.allowed for shift workers who would not be under the influence of alcohol, Mr Toomath said. “As soon as you start making exemptions you get problems of enforcement. Where do you draw the lines? How do you justify a restriction?”

The Ministry would prefer an over-all system that could be enforced without

exemption. How restrictive the laws became would depend: on feedback the Ministry received from interested parties. - The third stage of the scheme was the licence as at.present.

“How does a person move into that stage? Does he have to pass a test, take part in some type of training course t or just not commit any offences in the first two stages?” said Mr Toomath. The National Youth Council reacted, strongly against the proposals. The council’s chief executive officer, ■Mr Malcolm Menzies, said he agreed that the accident rate among young drivers was a serious problem. However, the measures proposed by the Ministry would only give traffic officers an excuse to stop every driver on the road, he said. “We think the measures will restrict personal freedoms without attacking the real problems of alcohol, excessive speed, and inexperience.” The president of the Defensive Driving Council, Mr James Thompson, said he agreed with the proposal for some kind of tiered licensing system, but said that it should include a learner’s attending a defensive driving course.