Young drivers face V8 car ban until 21

[tacka007]

I guess we all see examples of bad driving during our daily commute but does anyone actually take notice who the main offenders are? I’ll put it out there, young females in small 4 cylinder cars weaving through traffic with no time to wait, 4 wheel drives playing push and shove because of their size, impatient, aggressive and exhausted truckies, a whole range of demographics on phones, eating, smoking, putting on makeup, arms out windows when both hands should be on the wheel, intolerant mums and dads and this list could get very long.

It seems to me that the Australian motoring community at large is not interested in adhering to the basics of good driving practice yet young people in high powered cars is the main focus of Government safety initiative’s or should I say, misguided Government intervention as a means to be seen as doing something. I understand the young are highly represented in accidental deaths regardless of the type of reckless activity compared to other age groups but I can’t ever remember seeing any solid statistics that show the percentage of young drivers killed in road accidents that are actually driving a high powered vehicle as opposed to young people killed in low powered cars. Has anyone got access to these type of statistics, it would be interesting to see what the real story is without the political point scoring.

All I can say is Australian motorists in general regardless of age have poor driving skills and even poorer road manners and for most, it is way too late to change their attitude, in fact most are a complete lost cause. But education of the young has always been the secret to change so why would driver education be any different.

As others have said, there will always be those that lose the plot and do something stupid and the end result may be tragic but education works and it’s the ones that don’t become statistics that are saved and the long term attitudinal change of Australian driver’s will be the real benefiter. You can never start too young and the Government should as a matter of urgency be pouring money into it and road users may start to feel something good is coming from all the money raised from traffic violations instead of seeing it as a greedy revenue stream.

matt i think you have hit the nail on the head well said, another thing in vic is you can get an auto licenece on your p plates but once your off you dont need to retest in a manual you automicly get a manual one

[motorin on]

I had an interesting conversation with a car salesman today(NSW).He reckons if there is only 1 car in the family if you pay a $35 fee the kid can drive anything they want-he said his kid is already doing it on his P's.I going to check with the RTA.But I still don't want my kid in a V8 no matter how well she can drive-she not experienced enough

[NIXON]

so your off your p plates who says that your mature enough to drive a v6 now you might not even be capable ov driving a 4 cylinder,

Lol pull your head in clown, what the **** has this got to do with me, it's about inexperienced p plate drivers...

[macca_779]

It seems I'm on the minority side along with the other old people on here. I think restricting inexperienced drivers from piloting ridiculously powerful cars is a good idea, as per the LAMS for motorcycles. As much as I'd love to believe that educating everyone would stop people from being reckless idiots, I have grown old and cynical and don't believe that any amount of education is going to stop douchebags from being douchebags. I don't really care if they kill themselves but taking innocent other people with them is no acceptable.

I know guys that were fighter pilots at 19 yet they couldnt drive a v8.

These laws discriminate and that's a fact. If you have the education and can pass appropriate testing age should not be a restriction. Easy for us older kent's to just ban them. What do we care it doesn't effect us. But that doesn't make it right.

[steve_t]

I know guys that were fighter pilots at 19 yet they couldnt drive a v8.

These laws discriminate and that's a fact. If you have the education and can pass appropriate testing age should not be a restriction. Easy for us older kent's to just ban them. What do we care it doesn't effect us. But that doesn't make it right.

Yep. Unfortunately, the idiots ruin for the rest of the population. As far as discrimination goes, I'm not sure where you're going with that. Of course we discriminate. Or should we open driver's licence testing to 10 year olds. I'm sure there's a number of them that could pass the test. How about drinking alcohol? Not letting under 18 year olds drink alcohol without their parents' supervision can't be fair on them.

How do we develop a test that assesses whether people will dickheads on the road?

As previously stated, even a piece of crap car has the potential to do damage but a car that does 0-100km in 5 seconds is still a higher risk than a 1.3 litre Toyota or something, especially when in the hands of an inexperienced driver or someone with an underdeveloped frontal lobe that lacks the ability to properly assess risk. Again, refer to the motorcycle LAMS graduated licencing system. A bike is less forgiving than a car for errors. It would be ridiculous to allow new, inexperienced riders to go straight to a 200hp superbike

[michaels1v8]

A bit of quick googling throws up some interesting results.

1) Between ages 17-19 the risk of death in an accident is about 4 times higher than for the population generally.
2) Far more fatal crashes occur at night rather than during the day. Weekends have higher crash rates than during the week.
3) Far more fatal crashes occur when there are multiple passengers, especially when under age 20.
4) Males are far more likely than females to be involved in fatal crashes when under the age of 20.

Interesting.

I'd hazard a guess that alcohol was a pretty big factor in a number of those crashes too.

[288vxgts300]

The education SHOULD start at school, if the gubberment were for real,

very recently a young girl, P plater was killed here texting,how teribble.

When i was young,you got your licence in your wheatbix packet,basicly,
didn,t get much education,or much assesment of driving.

Things are much better these days,but more education of consequences ,might give people at least the chance to think a bit.

[tacka007]

Lol pull your head in clown, what the **** has this got to do with me, it's about inexperienced p plate drivers...

well your the one that come out with the f****D up statment, so you never drove a v6 at all on your p plates.

[NIXON]

well your the one that come out with the f****D up statment, so you never drove a v6 at all on your p plates.

It's not ****ed up at all, I drove a v6 on my green a few times, my parents car. The rest of the time I had a hg prem with a slug of a 186. All cars can go fast, but for p platers a v6 will get them there faster, refer to pic of the commodore with the side sliced open.
I don't give a **** if they wanna speed and kill themselves, but other road users are also at danger with all these heros driving around.

[Belzey]

I think you can educate them as much as you like but it all comes down to mentality and unfortunately a really good percentage of boys just do not have it. I am terrified for when my 2 boys get their license I have been trying to drum into their heads from a young age that it only takes 1 split second of stupidity for them to be here no more while behind the wheel of a car. I don't think there is a quick fix or solution but banning v8s for P platers is definitely not the answer because as stated a little car is still quite capable of doing high speeds.

[planetdavo]

Restricting engine size to under 2.0 litres (normally aspirated) is just farkin stupid davo. Not every p plater has a job sitting behind a parts bench all day long. A large % of p plater males are tradesman who have work gear to lug around. i would love to see how my apprentice will lug his work bench around in a 2ltr honda civic. some of your stupid opinions are more flawed than what you think the power to weight system is

You appear to have a wee bit of trouble understanding the term "tongue in cheek" fella...
The second part of the post was the serious bit.
(Thanks for telling us all just how quickly you over-react though)

[planetdavo]

I know guys that were fighter pilots at 19 yet they couldnt drive a v8.

These laws discriminate and that's a fact. If you have the education and can pass appropriate testing age should not be a restriction. Easy for us older kent's to just ban them. What do we care it doesn't effect us. But that doesn't make it right.

Australia has a population of over 20 million people, of which maybe half are able to drive. There will ALWAYS be a fair level of "discrimination" when you have to regulate this many people.

[Evman]

Turns out the research has already been done, finding that high power to weight ratio cars have little to do with the over representation of young drivers in fatal crashes.

http://www.roadwise.asn.au/news/factsheets/youngdriverfactsheet/file/at_download

Contrary to popular myth, young drivers areno more at risk of death or serious injury by driving powerful cars than other drivers.
• In 2006, drivers aged 17-24 years represented 14% of all WA licence holders, but accounted for 33% of all fatalities and 28% of all hospitalised casualties.
• WA research showed that between 1999 and 2000, only 3% of young driver crashes involved vehicles with a high power to weight ratio (PWR)*.
• Even small cars with a low PWR* can easily achieve speeds high enough to kill or seriously injure a driver, their passenger or other road users.
• During 2006, 50% of drivers and riders involved in fatal crashes where speed was a factor were aged between 17 and 24 years of age.
• It is not high powered vehicles that cause crashes, it is the fact that inexperienced drivers speed in vehicles of all types which is largely responsible for their over representation in crash statistics.

[tacka007]

we must be doing somthing right we had the lowest road toll in 2011 since 1946 with god knows how many more cars and people on the road, yet we are never praised for the efforts, why doesnt aca do a report on that,

[mbabs1]

the large majority of people dying on the roads dont follow any of the laws ( drunk, speeding, high powered car, to many people in the car or all of the above) so doesnt really matter what the law is unless they catch them before they crash.