Warren wrote:I think the minimum driver licence age should be moved up a year or 2 for start.
Second, they should put the drinking age back up 20! A 20 year old would be less likely to supply booze to a 16 year old than an 18 year old.
21 like the yanks would be even better.
Drinking is probably fueling half of this problem, if not more!
I personally believe that the driving age should be raised to 18. From 15 years old you should be able to participate in driving education though. So you learn how to control a car in the wet etc. This way when you reach 18 you go for what is effectively your full licence and have been taught how to drive correctly in the first place.
As for the drinking age. I believe it should be lowered. Down to say 16. I say this because when you turn 18 at the moment you can legally drive a car and you start being legally allowed to drink. This means you are still in the stage of trying every drink under the sun and the drinking and driving thing starts. If you had been drinking for several years you SHOULD have some control over your drinking habits, then when you get your licence you SHOULD be more intelligent in your choices around drinking and driving etc.
The problem we have at the moment is that people who do the illegal driving - I used to when I was younger - are there for the thrill of the dark side. Not for the racing etc. If you take the racing to a track these people will not turn up. They lose the "darkness" of it all that they crave so much.
We used to set up drags with cones at 0M, 400M, 1000M. You start at 0M (obviously) gun it to 400M, then cruise at 100KPH to 1000M turn around using the side streets and head back. Everybody stayed behind the cars racing (aside from the starter which was probably a bit dangerous). The road was watched from both ends to ensure that any people who weren't involved were well looked out for. We had "marshalls" (people who wanted to be part of it but weren't racing - free too) and the police generally left us too it. It was out on a country road kms from nowhere. I think the police generally left us to it as there weren't any complaints, nobody got hurt (though I imagine Holy Hell would've been to pay if they had) and we weren't in the streets of the city. You used to be able to drive up and down the main drag with minimal interference from "boy racers" as they were out elsewhere. We also never allowed idiots with stupidly modified cars (cutties etc) to race as most of the people there were as against that sort of crap as we are.
This also had the advantage of including those people who were there because they thought they weren't supposed to be. Something similar but with police approval and minimal police presence would be key to solving this problem.
I think there is an attitude of hostility immediately caused by the police. Not because of anything they've done but because they are merely a sign of authority. If night speed dragwars at Meremere wasn't policed as much as it is (i.e. police cars "hunting" the area) I think it would be a bigger success. I beleive the police just need to have a way of creating a presence without being present. I know how that sounds but I also figure most of you know exactly what I mean.
Restricting engine sizes / horsepower / torque I think would be a catastrophic problem. As once again you are going to get a bunch of people when they hit a certain age grabbing the biggest size engine they can. So you'll end up with a bigger cluster of idiots. I love turbos. I love the way they make me smile when I bury my foot in them, but I went and bought a V8 because I knew a turbo wasn't right for me. I'd kill myself and possibly some other poor bugger. Worse still killing some other poor bugger and walking away.
Bottom line is its a mentality thing. If we can change the mentality then the problem will be minimized. But creating / changing laws isn't the way to do this.
Brute force and ignorance always prevails.
Failure comes from too little brute force, or too little ignorance.