Should the driving age in Australia be lowered?
If the driving age in Australia was lowered to 17 the road toll would rise by 20 per cent in the first year alone. The pressure to lower the driving age is the greatest in Victoria as it is the state with the highest driving age. Only in Victoria does a young person have to be 18 before he or she can be awarded with the provisional license. Despite the intermittent agitation, especially in Victoria, for lowering of the driving age, there are a number of road safety groups claiming that it would increase accidents on Australian roads. That the driving age in Australia should not be lowered as young licensed drivers already have the highest accident rate, sixteen and seventeen year olds consume alcohol illegally and young people’s brains are not yet fully developed and so are unsuited to the decision making required to drive well.
Young licensed drivers already have the highest rate of road accidents in Australia. Those bastions of lowering the driving age argue that young people are already dramatically over-represented in road casualty and fatality rates. Decreasing the period during which young people can legally drive by an additional 18 months to two years will result in an even higher number of road accidents that involve young people. Youth Safe has drawn attention to the high accident rate among young drivers. The group has stressed that young drivers are significantly over represented in road traffic accidents which result in both death and injury. In 2007 the world health organisation released data showing that nearly 400,000 people under 25 years die on the worlds roads each year. In 2013 the bureau of infrastructure, transport and regional economics revealed that in Australia, the population based rate for road death for young people is 56 per cent higher than other age groups. Young driver fact bases states that young drivers (17 – 25 years) represent one quarter of all Australian road deaths .A 17...