Driving age "must be raised by Easter" - Dunne
Coroner Sue Johnson is the latest voice to call for legislation to raise the driving age to be hurried through Parliament, while speaking at the inquest into the death of Christchurch City councillor Graham Condon.
UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne introduced the Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment Bill in September last year that would raise the driving age to 16 and increase the learner period from 6 months to 12 months.
"Whoever the next Government is, they need to commit to placing this at the top of the agenda when Parliament resumes," says Mr Dunne.
"Politicians need to heed to pleas of our coroners and rush this Bill through before more lives are unnecessarily lost on our roads. There should be a truncated select committee process so that the Bill is passed before Easter weekend.
"Fifteen is just too young to be let loose on the road unaccompanied. They are still just kids and the part of their brain that assesses risk is nowhere near fully developed. I don’t want 15 year olds driving past my family at 100km/h down our highways." ... Read the full text of this article.
