There has been another death

of a teenager on the roads of this state. It is the tenth this year - ten too many.

This time it was a young woman but young men still outnumber young women. These are "P platers" as we call them. Young people who have moved from "Learner" status to "Probationary" status. 

This young woman should have been celebrating her 19th birthday yesterday. Instead, her family is mourning her death. Her car hit a tree. It was a "single vehicle incident". It is also a tragedy, a tragedy that should not have occurred.

Speed, especially in rural areas, is a major contributing factor to accidents.  Drivers on P plates are not supposed to have consumed any alcohol at all but it happens. There is a third factor which is almost never mentioned - suicide by driving at speed towards a large tree.

When we lived in on an island many people exceeded the speed limits. Young drivers often did. There were not nearly as many accidents as there might have been simply because there were not nearly so many cars.  The roads were also unsealed and the cars were not as powerful as they are now.  Alcohol was not as much of an issue as it is now. The age at which you could legally buy a drink was higher - twenty-one to now eighteen. As a means of suicide it was also perhaps a little more difficult - although by no means impossible.

There are people who are agitating for the age to obtain a licence to be lowered. There are others who want the period on a probationary licence to be extended. All sorts of arguments are extended though for young people to have their own transport. They "need it" in rural areas where there is no public transport. They "need it" if they have jobs or sports training or the public transport is inconvenient or even "non existent".

I still believe that sixteen is too young to embark on what is most definitely an adult activity. I do not believe that teaching a sixteen year old to drive is a responsible thing to do. The reality in fact is that there are far too many and much younger teenagers who believe they can drive. They have the over-confidence and lack of experience of youth. Speed gives them an adrenalin rush and they are encouraged by their peers to break any number of other laws at the same time. 

I would like to see the age for a learner licence to be raised to eighteen and the probationary period extended so it becomes five years. If there are speeding and alcohol breaches in that period then you start again. Tough? Yes - but so is losing a young person.

It is perhaps too simple to say, "We managed without all these cars." We did of course but people keep telling me, "It's different now. Young people need a car." Really? They need a life too.