Did you know young drivers and riders, aged 16 to 24 years, are 60% more likely to be involved in a serious crash than licensed mature adult drivers, aged 25 to 59 years.
Risk taking behaviour on the roads is a major issue within the Australian community, it is responsible for 1,226 deaths in 2017 (Australian Government, 2018). The Australian Government identify the cause of these death as the fatal 5, the fatal 5 is a road safety campaign to prevent risky behaviour on the road. The fatal 5 includes, speeding, drink and drunk driving, failure to wear a seatbelt, driving when fatigued and distraction and inattention. On July 1st, 2007 the Queensland Government made substantial changes to the Queensland Graduated Licensing System (GLS) as they introduced thirteen new initiatives. This included, doubling the holding period for all Learners (from 6-months to 12-months) under the age of 25 and can only enter the Provisional license after recording 100 hours of supervised driving. This is to ensure the learner drivers having plenty of experience when beginning to drive on their provisional licence. The Provisional license phase is also split into two phases (P1 and P2), this was implemented to restrict P1 drivers to carry no more than one peer passenger aged under 21 years during the hours of 11pm to 5am. The new laws have been applied to estimate preliminary effects of the GLS system and its component regulations on crashes, breaches and driver behaviours. There will be three specific laws that will be analysed throughout this presentation, including, peer passenger restriction, mobile phone use on P1 licence and the Hazard perception test that is required to gain a P2 licence.
Between 2008 and 2017 there were significant reductions in deaths for all age groups under 40 years, this is a result of the implementation of GLS laws (appendix 1). Population rates for people under 40 showed the greatest improvement, although the 17-25 age group remains above the overall average. Although the number of deaths in older age groups has increased, this increase is consistent with a growing older population as there has been a slight decline over the decade in the rate per 100,000 population. During the ten years to 2017, total vehicle registrations increased by 23 per cent so this can impact how the data compares.
The restrictions on younger drivers are results of their crash rates along with the way their brains develop. The brain contains two types of tissue, grey matter and white matter. The grey matter contains the cell bodies, dendrites and axon terminals, this is where all synapsis are for muscle control and sensory perception (seeing, hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making and self-control). The white matter connects various parts of the grey matter by quickly relaying messages from one section of the brain to another because its axons are heavily myelinated (Gillin, 2017). This impacts the way youth drive as brain signals are essential for motor skills and emotional maturity are essentials skills for driving, and these are the last to form in the brain’s frontal lobe. Many believe inexperience is the cause of many teenage car crashes and incidences although emotional immaturity is the primary reason. Lack of development is the cause of desire to take risks, and inability to perform complex manoeuvres.
In Queensland, the peer passenger restriction law is enforced if you hold a P1 licence under the age of 25 and if you are driving between the hours of 11pm and 5am, you are only permitted 1 passenger under the age of 21 who is not an immediate family member. If caught breaking this law 3 demerit points will be recorded as well as a $391 fine. This was implemented to prevent the fatality rates between the hours of 11pm to 5am. Overall, the deadliest time on the road is between 3pm and 5pm, but not for young people. For drivers aged 17-34 the most dangerous time is in the middle of the night on weekends, between 10pm and 2am. 10% of all fatal car accidents in Australia in 2016 were due to fatigue, accidents that occur when the drive is fatigued usually happen when the driver is either sleep deprived or is driving during their normal hours of sleep (Budget direct, 2018). Drivers are four times more likely to have a fatal crash as a results of fatigue between the hours of 10pm till dawn, as fatigue can impair a driver’s judgement and performance, as well as reducing their attention and reflexes (Budget direct, 2018).
Before the GLS laws were enforced in 2007 almost 40% of the daily fatalities were recorded from 6pm-12pm at night (RTMC, 2004). This evidence proving that the implementation of the peer passenger restriction law is effective since in 2016 only 10% of fatal car accidents were due to fatigue (Budget Direct, 2018). Although this law has decreased fatalities in the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning 50% of P1 drivers have sped home to make the 11pm curfew. This is unacceptable although it is still occurring, since 31% of fatalities are due to speeding this law cause increase the amount of deaths due to speeding (Fredrez, 2017). This law also can force teens to be walk around from 11pm-5am at night since they are not able to get lifts for more than one under 25 year old at a time so this causes for young groups left to find their own way around. Most of the youth population prefer not to pay for taxis and other forms of travel home as it could be too expensive, this can then lead to other issues such as youth crime, for example, breaking and entering, damaging street post and public alcohol consumption.
The peer passenger restriction law does not advocate for a diverse range of P1 drivers since, it is not a diverse method. The Law fails to create a supportive environment for youths requiring a lifts at these times. It does not cater for various geographical locations or socio economic status as people or live further out of town are unable to make various trips to continue dropping one person at a time and coming back to pick more up so they do not overload. This also effects people with low economic status as they are unable to afford fuel to continue making the same trip more than once so they do not over load. An improvement for this law would be to
In Queensland, the mobile phone restriction law has specific barriers for P1 licencing, the use of a mobile phone held in your hand while driving is illegal (all drivers), P1 specifically are unable to use hands-free kits, wireless handsets and loudspeaker functions whilst driving. If caught driving a vehicle connect to hands free, wireless headset, mobile phone on speaker setting or when image from television or visual display unit visible to the driver or likely to distract another driver with a P1 licence under 25 you will be fined approximately $174 and 3 points demerited as a punishment. Since the 1st of September 2015 double demerit points has applied for second or subsequent mobile phone offences, although this only applies within 1 year of the earlier offence. The new restrictions for P1 licences for phone use was introduced with the GLS system. Driving studies suggest that talking, listening and/or dialing a hand held device accounted for 7% of the total crashes and near crashes, inattention in the broader sense has been found to be a contributing factor in 78% of car crashes and 65% of near crashes in 2006 (QUT, 2017). Young drivers aged 18 to 25 are two times more likely to make a phone call and four times more likely to text, read emails or use the internet.