Plea to raise driving age to stop 15-year-olds killing

I think that the age is fine as long as the courses are done properly and the bans are enforced on a zero tolerance policy and I think it would be more balanced if the learner licence time was increased to 12 months and the restriced licence time decreased to 12 months. I have noticed that some restrictions, such as no passengers without full licence, are constantly ignored by the police. This should not happen.

It's silly to use these two incidents as reasons that the driving age needs to be raised. The drivers were inexperienced and were breaching their license conditions by carrying passengers. It would be ineffective to raise the driving age, because instead of having inexperienced 15 year old drivers on the road, we will just have inexperienced 16 and 17 year old drivers on the road...and is that much better?

Everyone has to learn how to drive at some point, and to do that, has to practice driving on the road. Driving is dangerous - that's why getting your (full) license is such a lengthy and complicated process. It's terrible and saddening when accidents like these happen, but unfortunately anyone can get into an accident on the road - young or old, inexperienced or experienced, with a crummy old car or with a high performance car. While raising the driving age might be a good idea in general, these incidents are not evidence that it is necessary.

It's very easy for people to take advantage of a tragedy in order to push a personal agenda.

i'd rather be sitting stationary in my vehicle waiting to turn left than be a sitting duck stuck in a middle of an intersection waiting to get slammed into by some inattentive idiot or hey presto immature 15yr old kid with a licence who doesn't know how to drive, has no roadsense, too much adrenaline and probably no insurance.

can't posibly raise the driving age because this will hurt the 'economy' cos thats whats important eh, how are all the young automatons going to get to work now. Wouldn't want to help global warming and resource depletion by taking these immature youngsters off the road, wouldnt want to save the fuel that costs the country billions but gets the govt 100's of millions in tax. A huge net loss in reality but try to tell that to the revenue gatherers. 15 years of age in charge of 1 tonne of metal. Hell National may even drop the age to 12 to procure more economic activity which is just so damn all important to those 'growth' at any cost types. Like most things the age should be 20+ to protect these kids from themselves, they will have plenty of chance to drive and do all the real things that adults do from 20 onwards and hell they might even save some money in their bank to buy their car, just like they used to. Too many benefits to list here by raising the age

As Malcolm X once said, "You can't hate the roots of a tree without hating the tree." Similarily, you can't hate the youth driving death statistics without hating the car manufacturers and sellers. Cars are as just as dangerous as cigarettes in my view. Therefore I would argue that car displays should be accompanied by billboards of car crashes and all instances of driving in the media be restricted to a steady 50 kmh. It's not much but it's a start.

Science has shown that the area of the brain used for judgement of speed, distance and reaction is not developed at 15 and not until 19 or 20 in some individuals. Testosterone is flowing round and causing wild agression. 15 is crazy. The civilised world is raising to 18, 19 or 20 whilst dozy old New Zealand does not care enough to protect our own. Start at 19 and no car over 1000cc until 25.

Its not age that determines a drivers ability! Raising the driving age to 16 will just give us inexperiences 16 year ols drivers on the road - raising it to 18 will again just give us inexperienced 18 year olds on the road. Age should not be the determining point in someone driving. I have two boys one 17 and one 15 - the 15 year old is far more mature than his "older: brother. If I had to choose between them who should drive a car it would be the 15 year old! Surely a more intensive driver education programme is needed. And yes, something through school or private driving schools. We need educated and mature drivers on the road - but this isnt governed by age alone!

should this not be a key issue in the election debate? these are the issues that important.. keeping our children alive...

I know many teenagers on restricted (And sometimes learner) licenses that don't think twice about carrying passengers. This is because we know the police aren't going to pull us over if we are in a sensible car, and driving sensibly, and appear not to be breaking the law. Restricted license drivers should have to display 'R' plates, and be able to carry only fully licensed drivers. The age for Learner drivers should be 16, and the time on learner license extended to a year so we don't have 15 1/2 year olds' driving around the streets.

Controlling what cars younger people drive? Increasing the age?

Great, you're going to give younger people less driving experience before they're classed as an adult... making worse drivers - but it WILL improve the stats(less younger drivers). As for controlling types of cars, top idea mate. A 1.5lt Civic travelling at 100kmph is going to be less deadly than a V8 Falcon travelling at the same speed - right? Of course not. The sole difference is that anyone driving those smaller cars has a greater chance of dying on impact. But from comments so far, it's ok to let Mum and Dad bury their kid... she/he was just a girl/boyracer anyway.

Catch your kid doing stupid acts with a car or anything - smack 'em round the head. Police can impound with little evidence, so they have ample powers to intervene should they be required.