How to Limit P-Plate Crashes
Receiving your P1 licence signifies an important time in a teenager’s life. For many, it can be seen as a rite of passage, a transition into adult hood. It gives a teenager the rite and freedom of travelling in a car on their own, and opens up new opportunities for work, travel, school etc. Despite these privileges, receiving your p-plates comes with major responsibilities. Drivers who are on their p-plates are often involved in horrifying crash statistics and are perceived as reckless, irresponsible and foolish drivers. Statistics show that 26 per cent of all road fatalities are p-plate drivers, and that a driver with a p1 license is four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a driver over twenty-six years of age.
There are many strategies proposed to reduce these dreadful statistics. The first strategy I have chosen to look at is the proposal of Night-time curfew. Night-time curfew is a regulation, which restricts provisional drivers from driving between specific hours at night. I will look further into the advantages and disadvantages, effectiveness, and how well it may contribute to the overall reduction of p-platers involved in road accidents. The first advantage of night-time curfew is that it gives inexperienced drivers another couple of years or so to gain certain skills during the day before they go out onto the roads late at night. As Road Safety VIC says - “Novice drivers, who have not learned to recognize danger during the day when visibility is good, are at a particular disadvantage when vision is compromised by darkness”. Some may argue that drivers need to gain the night-time driving skills sooner rather than later, as it will only cause damage when they receive their full licence, however, I personally think that the driver will be confident and more mature by the time they are off their p-plates and this should decrease the fact that crashes between 10pm and 6am occur most frequently in the first 6months of driving (See graphs
There are many strategies proposed to reduce these dreadful statistics. The first strategy I have chosen to look at is the proposal of Night-time curfew. Night-time curfew is a regulation, which restricts provisional drivers from driving between specific hours at night. I will look further into the advantages and disadvantages, effectiveness, and how well it may contribute to the overall reduction of p-platers involved in road accidents. The first advantage of night-time curfew is that it gives inexperienced drivers another couple of years or so to gain certain skills during the day before they go out onto the roads late at night. As Road Safety VIC says - “Novice drivers, who have not learned to recognize danger during the day when visibility is good, are at a particular disadvantage when vision is compromised by darkness”. Some may argue that drivers need to gain the night-time driving skills sooner rather than later, as it will only cause damage when they receive their full licence, however, I personally think that the driver will be confident and more mature by the time they are off their p-plates and this should decrease the fact that crashes between 10pm and 6am occur most frequently in the first 6months of driving (See graphs
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