Rotorua Coroner Wallace Bain is right to call for better education for young drivers about the dangers of driving.
His call came as he released his findings yesterday into the death of Rotorua teenager Jesse Howe in 2010.
Jesse was a passenger in a van full of 12 teenagers driven
by Aaron Gourlay. The circumstances of that last trip between Reporoa and Rotorua were so dangerous the Coroner has been able to identify at least nine factors that did contribute, or could have contributed, to the crash that injured 11 people and claimed Jesse's life.
Dr Bain said any of those factors could on their own have caused Jesse's death, but he particularly identified texting while driving.
It's not hard to see why. Given the road conditions, the fact it was the open road, and the time of night, the added distraction of carrying out two text conversations, as the driver did, would have increased the risk exponentially.
