KEY POINTS:
Laws covering young drivers seem likely to be toughened as growing calls for an overhaul to the licensing system find favour in the Beehive.
A spate of serious crashes involving young drivers has put the licensing system under the microscope, and Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven yesterday said
"there has to be some change".
He is floating the idea of putting a time limit on how long a driver can hold a restricted licence, and making people who commit offences go back to the start of their restricted period.
"I think we need to say that once you've got your restricted, if you haven't done your full licence test within two, three years, whatever, you start again," Mr Duynhoven said.
"You don't have a licence, it expires."
Mr Duynhoven advocates compulsory third party insurance as a way of eliminating the "boy racer problem", and wants to improve the level of driver testing in New Zealand.
He has also expressed concern that drivers can pass a licence test in a tiny car such as a Fiat Bambina, then go out and get a powerful V8.
Transport officials are looking at ways of dealing with the large number of drivers who breach the conditions of learner and restricted licences.
Young drivers are over-represented in crash statistics compared with older drivers, despite a recent improvement.
Common offences committed by young drivers on restricted licences include driving after 10pm without being accompanied by a person who has held a full licence for at least two years, and carrying friends as passengers when they are not allowed to.
Mr Duynhoven said fines for such offences were not working because a young driver's parents often paid, or a group of youngsters in a car would split the bill between them.
"If we have a system where the consequences of breaking the law are seen as minimal or non-existent, and where there is no effective sanction, we can have the best systems in the world but people aren't going to comply with it," he said.
The Ministry of Transport is investigating changes to penalties for driving offences.
Among the ideas it is considering is "diminishing demerits" - where a driver disqualified for getting 100 demerit points does not automatically go back to zero after serving the disqualification.
Instead, the driver might go back to 70 points, meaning that another offence could result in his or her being disqualified again.
It is thought demerit points might be more effective than fines in punishing some offences, particularly those by young and novice drivers.
Mr Duynhoven said New Zealand's main problem was the culture among drivers, which was quite different from that of other countries.
"In New Zealand we have the 'I'm 15, it's my right to have a driver's licence' mentality," he said.
"We don't have an equal mentality of 'Hey, I'm 15, I'm beginning to learn to drive, I better be responsible'."
Among those calling for change to the licensing system are the police and the Automobile Association.
A new compulsory driving course is among the changes being pushed.
The Government is unlikely to increase the age at which people can start obtaining a driving licence.
Mr Duynhoven said he felt 15 was too young, but he did not think changing the age would improve standards.
He said evidence around the world showed that crashes tended to happen in the first two years of driving, whether the person began at 15 or 18 or older.
