Boldy wrote:Ha! you were never going to get any support for the oldies driving on a car enthusiates forum, is there anyone over 50 that actually reads this?
Anyways just to offer some arguement from the other side of the coin. The leading cause of death for males aged 18 to 25? Um car accidents, this would have to reflect on the driving ability of young males. Young drivers know their own cars? Therefore can push it too the limits? Can you say over confidence combined with
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story ... D=10403532I think at the end of the day bad drivers can be any age, but if it were up to me 18 would be the minimum age, and compulsary retesting over the age of 65.
Yes but what are the other causes of death for that same age group. Imho there would be sweet $&#$% all natural causes of death in that particular age group with the next age group up 25-35 just maybe starting to show some signs of healt issues causing death.
Now you may find this irrelevant but when you look at it from the point of veiw that just because it's the leading cause of death for that age group it's "definately because they are overconfident bad drivers". I do however agree that 15 is on the young side when it comes to learing to drive and i'd definately recomend the age limit went up if we had a public transport system up to the job of getting people from where ever they are to where ever they wish to be which is fine if your in the city where busses run most hours and regularly. Unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you look at it we are a country of primarily primary producers which means that over half the population lives in the sticks for you aucklanders. That means no public transport and if you want to go somewhere it's in the car. Now if mum and Dad are both on the farm, or at work in town then your stuck, no transport means you stay at home. Trust me from first hand experience you can't do all the things you'd like to do with the missus over the phone specially at that age when communication isn't one of the strong points anyhow.
So if you want the age raised to 18 think about it a bit, specially if you live in the country or not on a public transport route, imagine what would have happened to your social life when you were 16 if you weren't able to drive and your mates couldn't just come round and pick you up or vicea-versa. What about the poeple who leave school at 16 and get a job that requires them to drive - alot of full time jobs at 16 require you to be able to drive - i guess they could stay at school and get a higher education then nz would grind to a halt because of a lack of secondary production and services and lastly imagine what it will be like as a parent having to constantly run around after your kids up till the age of 18, dropping them off at parties, sports and all manner of other things young peoples do and then picking them up from all the aforementioned activities. Don't say your kids will just walk there and back think of whats unfortunatley increasingly happening to people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, dead.
Make the penalties alot harsher for not sticking to the conditions of your learners/restricted like instantly having your car impounded etc would probably wake up the youth as most often the ones that are doing dangerous stuff are those outside there restrictions and being egged on by there mates. And maybe a longer restricted period lastly, bring it up to a minimum year and a half no reduction for any courses but make it compulsory to have done at least one maybe two practical driving courses. I know when i did some fo these courses it woke me up quite quickly as to where my driving was actually at.
And then after all that we'l all still have to deal with the oldies who don't know what the hell is going on or even that they are driving sometimes i think.
PS seeing as your throwing percentages around tell us what age group has the highest percentage of fatal crashes per capita. Reckon you might be surprised what it is.
lol nah i dunno man. Its just like 97% of the time a 'boy racer' is in the right.... or maybe not 
