Is 15 too young?
AUTHOR: Peter Dunne
The driving age is back in the news again, following the recent awful accidents in Christchurch where the three fifteen year old girls were killed.
I am proposing a Member's Bill to raise the earliest age at which a young driver can gain a provisional licence from fifteen years to sixteen years, and to extend the length of the learner licensing period from six months to two years. A recent poll in the New Zealand Herald showed 87% support for such a move, and the many messages I have received in my office over the last week are running at about 90% support. I am aiming to try to introduce the Bill to Parliament later this week.
It strikes me as perverse to say the very least that we have higher age limits for many other things, but our limit for learning to drive is amongst the lowest in the world, when motor accidents have the potential to do so much damage to young people.