KEY POINTS:
Young drivers in New Zealand aren't taught how to drive - merely how to pass the test. They then get into high-powered cars, without knowing how to control even a low-powered car, and without the maturity or experience to realise what they don't know could kill them.
- From a reader called Noel.
IN the next 24 hours, more than 1000 people under the age of 25 years will be killed on the world's roads.
By late tomorrow, more than 2000 will have died. Come Tuesday, the under-25 toll will be upwards of 3000. A year from now, around 370,000 under-25s will be toast.
Most of the deaths in low- and middle-income countries will be pedestrians, cyclists, or those on public transport.
In high-income countries like New Zealand, most of the under-25 victims will be novice drivers. Some will have had too much to drink. Inexperienced young adults driving with blood alcohol concentration levels above 0.05g/dl have a 2.5 times higher risk of a crash compared with older, more experienced drivers.
These are United Nations figures, taken from a Youth Declaration for Road Safety conference in Geneva.
The risk for young drivers in New Zealand, where the blood/alcohol limit is a less severe 0.8g/dl, can be calculated at nearer three times that of older drivers.
Speeding is the single most common traffic rule violation committed by young, male drivers and contributes to up to one third of all road traffic crashes.
Male drivers aged 17 to 20 are almost 10 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured behind the wheel than men aged 40 to 59.
In average conditions, a car travelling at 60km/h will take about 45m to stop in an emergency braking situation. A car braking from 65km/h will still be moving at close to 32km/h after 45m. The risk of involvement in a casualty crash doubles with each 5km/h increase in speed above 60km/h.
Over the next 12 months, around 1.2 million people will die on the world's roads. Around 30 per cent of those will be under the age of 25. The UN youth group is looking at ways to reduce that 30 per cent.
Plans being considered by the UN include introducing the principles of safe driving into the school curriculum.
Learner drivers would have to keep a record of their training, undertake a minimum period of practice and demonstrate that they have a responsible attitude rather than just the basic skills to pass the test.
The UN is also looking at the Swedish system, where young people start having lessons on public roads at 16 and accumulate 120 hours of training before taking their tests. The road toll in Sweden last year was the lowest in 60 years.
Britain's Road Safety Minister Stephen Ladyman told the Times he favoured reforms aimed at eradicating the reckless attitude to road safety among young drivers. He said the British Government would consider introducing a more rigorous learning process.
"We may need to start doing driver education while young people are still at school, introducing them to the rules, dangers and responsibilities of the road at a much earlier age," he said.
"We have developed this attitude that you first learn to pass the test and then you learn to drive. It's an option to have more formal training. We have to debate whether there should be some level of compulsion."
Britain's road toll in 2006 was 3172, down from 3201 in 2005. In Switzerland, the road toll last year was 370, down nearly 10 per cent on 2005. France recorded 4703 road fatalities in 2006, 11.6 per cent less than in 2005. The toll in France has fallen 43 per cent in five years.
In Germany in 1980 there were around 15,000 deaths on roads.
In 2005, there were 5360. Austria had 370 deaths in 2006, a third fewer than in 1980.
The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention contributes the drop in the road toll to the drop in the blood-alcohol limit, from 0.8 to 0.5. That, and a new licensing system where novice drivers are on a three-year trial period before they get their full licences.
Across the Tasman, Victoria's road toll has more than halved in five years, from 771 in 2001 to 337 last year. The state's road safety record now leads the world, with a rate of 1.4 deaths for every 10,000 vehicles registered.
Last year in New Zealand, 387 people died on the roads, 17 fewer than in 2005 and the lowest annual road toll since 1960, when 374 people died. The deadliest year on our roads was 1973, when 843 were killed.
The road toll has dropped 47 per cent since 1990, when there were 729 road deaths in New Zealand. Since then, the number of vehicles has increased 42 per cent and the population has risen 21 per cent.
But this year the road toll has jumped. Forty-eight hours ago it stood at 223. On July 19 last year it was 207. Of the 223 deaths so far this year, 70 were aged between 15 and 24.
