Licensing review may consider driving age increase

Increasing the driving age could be considered as part of a review of driver licensing. However, Prime Minister Helen Clark says in the past there have been strong arguments against change.

The debate on whether to raise the legal driving age resurfaced following an accident on Friday night which claimed the lives of four teenagers in Hastings, and left two others seriously injured.

The accident is the latest in a series involving speeding teenage drivers which have claimed 22 lives.

Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven said yesterday he believed the age should be raised from 15 and he was working on a review of all licence rules.

However, Helen Clark, who was asked about the driving age at her post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, said the topic had come up in the past without agreement.

"One of the reasons was many parents of teenage children thought they would be more concerned if their children were ... in bus shelters in dark lanes on a dark night, than if they clubbed together in a car and drove themselves home."

Another issue was that public transport was not an option for young people in rural areas.

"You have to put all those things into the mix. There's no problem in suggesting, as Harry Duynhoven has, that when there's a general look at the rules around licensing that can be looked at." Helen Clark said she did not have a personal view on the driving age.

The car in the Hastings crash was travelling at speeds of up to 130km/h when it smashed into a tree.

Mr Duynhoven said there had been calls for a long time for the driving age to be looked at.

"It is not Government policy to lift the age of driving and it is not Government policy to introduce third-party insurance, although I am, personally, a fan of both of those," he said.

"I have already got work going on with all the issues to do with the driver's licence generally. No doubt when that work is put before the public, there will be a lot of people who want to have their say."

Automobile Association spokesman George Fairbairn said New Zealand had one of the lowest starting ages for learning to drive in the Western world. When the matter was last raised by politicians, the AA recommended that the starting age be raised to 16.

"It would hopefully mean the young person would have a little bit more maturity by the time they reach 16," said Mr Fairbairn.