Highway safety lawyers say changes in driver licensing are sending the wrong message to the student’s drivers.
The government wants to move to apprentice drivers who have to do only a practical test in favor of harsher alcohol restrictions and a reduced demerit threshold for students of students and restricted.
The number of necessary vision tests would also be reduced in the proposed changes that go out for public consultation today.
Changes ‘weakening the licensing system’
Wendy Robertson’s national director of the direction network said the proposal “removes the main safety check points and changes the focus to punitive measures and administrative convenience.”
“Replace the full license test with a period of ‘good behavior’ and increase penalties, reducing the demerit threshold, does not create safer roads or better drivers,” said Robertson.
“What is missing is a clear and evidence -based way that really supports drivers to learn well first.
“These changes are at risk of weakening the licensing system – particularly in the absence of any clear commitment to investment in road education and training.
Robertson said the government needed to prioritize driver education, implement a minimum number of hours on the supervised road for student drivers and invest in community -based training programs that helped disadvantaged, rural and high needs.
“We have to drive on these roads, and if people are having their license through an easier system that is no more safe than all our families are at risk,” she said.
‘Having a complete license does not make you a good coach’
The president of the Institute of Driving of Educators, Mark Revill-Johnson, said that appropriate checks would need to be in force to ensure that any requirements for training and practice practice were up to.
“We need to be able to ensure that people can’t simply drive the road and check mirrors, put a signal, check the blind spot and make a bend safely – like a small robot,” said Revill -Johnson.
“Because on the road things don’t always happen as they should.”
Drivers will not have to take a second practical test to get their license, with the government proposing the first major changes in the EW Zealand driver’s license system in 14 years.
Photo: 123rf
He said that although the system had similarities to other jurisdictions abroad, the complete details of the government plan have not yet been discovered.
He was concerned about how advanced driving courses, which could reduce the period in which a person spends on a restricted license or the notion of supervised driver practice would be incorporated into the new system.
“If the supervisor is a person who passed the test from 30 to 40 years ago, when the test was not so robust, what are they teaching and they have a license?
“We see many students who are with whom we are the only person with whom they can practice legally in terms of guaranteed car, registered and worthy of road and the full license for at least two years.
“Things have changed. Road code rules change all the time. So how are these people updated? Just having a complete license doesn’t make you a good coach.”
Revill-Johnson said the financing options also need to be in force to ensure that the changes would not leave the driver training out of reach for some students.
Concerns with reductions in vision tests
The Brake NZ Road Safety Group, Caroline Perry, said it was worried that the vision testing could also let drivers spend long periods of time without their view.
“Under this new proposal, you need to take a vision test when you register for your first license and when you renew your license after turning 45. Therefore, there may be a very significant gap.
“I understand that for some people – when they are doing the student, restricted and obtaining their full license, they are taking an ophthalmological examination at all points of this process.
“Depending on how long it takes you, you can do three ophthalmological tests over a reasonably short time.
“But going to this to have a very large gap in time can have the opposite effect in terms of a security perspective,” Perry said.
Change will facilitate the cost load for young people in rural communities
Wairoa mayor Craig Little said he received the changes, but only if people were properly skilled behind the wheel.
He said that cutting the second test would relieve the pressure on the rural drivers who fought to get the luxury of traveling from outside the city and then pay for a second test.
“There will be so many rural areas that they can’t do that yet and that’s the biggest concern for me – going up to a place where you don’t live to get your license,” Little said.
“With our children, when we couldn’t do it in Wairoa, they had to get them out of town, which was an infernal cost.
“Not everyone is lucky enough to have a car in the family that can lead them to Napier or Gisborne. So what relieves this stage – which is great.
“As long as they are competent enough to pass the first test, so that should be fine.”
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