No easy answers to speeding youths

It is a familiar sight on any road in the country, at any time of day.

First the roar of an engine so loud it drowns the car stereo. Then comes the car, usually Japanese and second-hand, and full of teenagers barely visible under baseball caps.

You are driving at the speed limit, but the teenmobile overtakes so fast it seems as though you are crawling.

Two questions come to mind: "Why do they have to drive so fast?" and "When will they crash?"

While safety experts struggle to find reasons for the former, answers to the latter comes all too soon for many young drivers.

At Easter, four people died when a high-powered car driven by a 19-year-old drove into a tree near Pukekohe. Two of the dead were 16.

The driver, Sebastian Sigamoney, had already lost his licence twice, had his car impounded and been fined six times in two years for speeding.

The deaths contributed to the worst Easter road toll for a decade, prompting Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven to say he had asked the Transport Ministry to review the licence system.

Dorothy Begg of Otago University's injury prevention research unit says reckless driving fitted the profile of many young males growing up.

"There are a few females that do it but the proportion is much lower," she told NZPA today.

Her research, which has looked at attitudes to driving and records of the same 1021 people when they were 15, 18, 21 and 26, found it was hard to predict who would persistently drive recklessly and too fast.

Linking repeat offenders' driving offences to their alcohol or drug dependencies was straightforward.

"But when you start looking at speeding it's not quite as clear cut," Dr Begg said.

"The public attitude to speeding is still that it is reasonably acceptable behaviour."

Last week, grieving father Peter Sigamoney defended his son's driving record, saying it was common for people of that age to get banned.

"Don't you think that's good for a boy who travels fast, six (fines) in two years?" he told the Sunday Star-Times.

Dr Begg said education about speeding was not enough on its own.

"In Australia, for instance, people have quite a different attitude to speeding because they know the chances of them getting caught are very high."

She hoped to begin a study soon that would look at how to predict who would join the small group of recidivist speeders before they started driving.

Studies here and abroad have shown drivers aged 25 and under take more risks and drive at riskier times, especially evenings and weekends, according to a Land Transport New Zealand report last year.

Despite licence restrictions, young New Zealand drivers spend a greater amount of time travelling between 8pm and 6am than any other age group.

They are also more likely to speed, follow cars closer, head into narrower gaps in traffic and are less likely to wear seatbelts.

More young drivers crash because of alcohol, speeding, losing control, inexperience and inattention.

Mr Duynhoven said last week he had concerns people were driving too young, and about their behaviour behind the wheel, especially when carrying passengers.

Dr Begg agreed, saying the highest risk for inexperienced drivers was when they first drove without supervision.

"When young drivers are being supervised, they are very unlikely to be involved in crashes.

It is possible for New Zealanders to drive on their own from the age of 15-1/2.

"That's too young. The learner period should be much longer," she said.

In 1987, New Zealand became the first country in the world to introduce comprehensive graduated licensing, including night curfews and passenger restrictions.

Learner drivers cannot drive unsupervised for at least six months. They then get a restricted 18-month licence, but still cannot drive unsupervised or carry teenage passengers from 10pm to 5am.

When raising the licence age has been suggested, rural lobbyists have argued successfully against it.

Dr Begg said no research had been done on whether it would harm rural communities.

But Kapiti Coast road safety co-ordinator Sue Johnson said the driving age was not too low because most teenagers were guided by parents.

Parents often taught their children to drive and controlled when family cars were used.

"Parents have a huge role to play and it's not easy," she said. "But there's research to show the more supervised driving teenagers get, the lower the risk of crashing once they're out on their own."

Young and inexperienced drivers needed practical training to change their behaviour.

"You can tell them about safety until you're blue in the face but unless they actually do it and experience it, nothing changes."

Ms Johnson runs driver awareness programmes for drivers along coast north of Wellington, which concentrate on areas such as judging stopping speeds, a major area of concern in young drivers.

Learners, most of whom have only driven with parents and never done emergency stops, are given practical tests by advanced driver trainers.

Anecdotal evidence showed the training worked, she said

One teenage boy told organisers he had avoided a crash because the course he took a week earlier taught him to increase his following distance.

She said it was misleading to using the "boy racer" tag against all young male drivers.

"It's all very negative. A lot of these guys are awesome. They've got fantastic cars that they take great pride in, like any generation.

"I think we need to encourage the positive and not accentuate the negative."

Fast cars had long been part of the male psyche, she said.

"We've just got to learn to deal with it somehow."

- NZPA