Slide 1-Title page

Slide 2-Contents page

Slide 3-15 years old is too immature

Slide 4-Drinking age is 18

Slide 5-Crash statistics

Slide 6-Would more instruction time help?

Slide 7-If the licence age is raised what would it look like?

Slide 8-Conclusion

*It is argued that 15 year olds are still far to immature to be responsible

behind the wheel of a car.

*It has been proven that their brains are not mature enough to deal with the

responsibility of driving a vehicle at that young age. (NZ Politics website).

*Dr Rober Isler a psychology lecturer at Waikato university explains that

because the frontal lobe - responsible for skills such as judgment, self-

control and the ability to plan - did not fully develop until a person was 25. It

could take a 15-year-old up to 30 per cent longer than an experienced driver

to respond to problems on the road. For the first six months of driving

unsupervised on a restricted licence, a 15-year-old was 19 times more at

risk of a mishap than a 25- year-old with driving experience.(Move to New

Zealand website).

*In New Zealand we do not feel that young people are responsible enough to

drink until they are 18 years old, but we let them behind the wheel of a car at

15 years old!

* Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a

result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor

vehicle crashes. (NIAAA website).

*Young people are over-represented in the crash statistics. Young

people aged 15–24 years are 14.5 percent of New Zealand’s population

and 16 percent of all licensed drivers. Yet in 2008 they were involved in

around 37 percent of all fatal crashes and 38 percent of all serious injury

crashes.

*International research indicates that, particularly before the age of 18,

the lower the age a person starts driving solo, the higher the crash risk.

This risk is greatest at age 15. (Ministry of Transport).

*Introducing a defensive driving course as a compulsory part of

attaining a driving licence will help with not only youngsters, but adults

from other countries who get their licences here but certainly don't

know how to drive properly, especially on NZ roads and in the weather

conditions of this country.(Politics New Zealand).

*So in my view after looking into this more instruction time would be

beneficial to young people getting their drivers licence. Whether that

be at 15 or 18 years of age.

*Learners licence would be held for 6 months from 18 years old.

*Restricted licence would be held for 18 months.

*Drivers would not be able to get their full licence until 20 years old.

*Currently young people get their full licence at 18 years old.

*Based on the issues that I have raised in this PowerPoint I believe that

New Zealand should raise the driving age to 18.

*This would allow young people time to mature before placing themselves

behind the wheel of a car.

What do you think?