IT is no secret that Victoria endured a horror 2016 on our roads. Scarcely a day went by when one of this state’s communities was not forced to confront the devastating impact of road trauma.
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That fatalities would soar 15.5 per cent from 252 in 2015 to 291 in 2016, despite an abundance of road safety education, was a bitter blow. The sharp increase also came in a year in which the Transport Accident Commission launched its well-meaning but unrealistic Towards Zero campaign.
As noble as the Towards Zero safety message is, the tragic reality is that for as long as humans get behind the wheel, there will inevitably be fatalities.
What we, as a state and a nation, must do is try to reduce the risk to road users without impinging on their ability to live their lives.
So it is no wonder that the Victorian Minister for Roads and Roads Safety, Luke Donnellan, gave such short shrift to a proposal to lower the probationary licence age to 17 years last week.
The recommendation was put forward by a bipartisan parliamentary committee that over the course of many months looked closely at the issue of bringing Victoria into line with other states.
The committee recommended that while there were strong opinions from experts and stakeholders on both sides of the divide, the change should be made.
Its key arguments in favour of the move were that “licensing is a gateway to mobility for many young people in non-urban areas”, and that “mobility is essential for young people to access opportunities for their future”. The report noted that teenagers in rural and regional areas were susceptible to “transport disadvantage” due to the lack of public transport options, often missing out on employment or education opportunities.
However, statistics indicate that young drivers, aged 17 to 25 years, are over-represented in crash data across Australia.
To mitigate this, the committee proposed changing the peer passenger restriction from one passenger to no passengers during the P1 phase, and restricting P1 drivers from driving between 10pm and 5am unless for employment, study or other authorised purposes. Neither of these measures were enough to sway the minister and a Fairfax Media poll, in which 53 per cent of respondents were against lowering the probationary age, suggests he made the right call for now.
But that does not mean we should stop looking at ways to bring Victoria into line with all the other states and territories.
