Tightening alcohol limits and lifting the driving age to 17 are too simplistic and won't improve road safety, say some groups.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce today released the "Safer Journeys" discussion document, containing 60 suggestions for changes to laws, regulations and policies to reduce the road toll.
Raising the minimum driving age to 17 would significantly affect farming families given limited transport options in rural areas, said Federated Farmers transport spokesman Donald Aubrey.
Rural youngsters were generally exposed to vehicle use to a greater extent, although there were questions whether that made them more confident drivers, he said.
Raising the minimum driving age would not be a cure all for problems learner drivers faced, he said.
The Automobile Association also disputed whether simply raising the driving age would address New Zealand's lack of driver training.
"If you did raise the minimum driving age all you are really doing is killing them a year later," AA spokesman Mike Noon said.
Overseas studies suggested learner drivers needed about 120 hours of supervised driving before they were well equipped to drive on their own. In New Zealand anecdotal evidence was that young drivers were supervised for between 20 and 30 hours before they went solo.
The AA wanted the learner period to be doubled from six months to 12 and for drivers to face tougher tests to get their restricted licenses, he said.
Another idea is to reduce the legal blood alcohol limit from 80mg per 100ml to 50mg per 100ml.
Mr Noon the AA supported a review of the alcohol driving limit, but simply dropping it would not achieve much.
"We have a real problem with hard-core drink drivers."
Figures showed that only 6 percent of drink drivers killed on the roads were between 50mg and 80mg, which meant that 94 percent would be above 80mg, he said.
"Of the 30,000 to 35,000 drink drivers caught each year we have caught 20 percent of them before. We are not doing enough to rehabilitate them."
The AA was also concerned about and wanted more study into people driving under the influence of popular drugs like cannabis and methamphetamine, or those drugs combined with alcohol.
However, the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) said it supported the option of reducing the blood alcohol limit for adult drivers from 80mg to 50mg and introducing a zero blood alcohol limit for all under-20 year olds regardless of licence status.
ALAC strategy manager Andrew Hearn said New Zealand's limits were high by international standards and best practice overseas was for a legal blood alcohol limit of 50mg for adults and a zero for young people.
Drivers aged between 20 and 29 years were 50.2 times more likely to have a fatal crash at 80mg compared to 17.5 times as likely at 50mg, Dr Hearn said.
"International experience also shows that a reduction in the blood alcohol level is likely to bring down mean alcohol levels amongst all drivers, including the `hard core'."
After the limit was lowered to 50mg in the Australian Capital Territories there was a 41 percent reduction in those caught with more than 15mg, he said.
Meanwhile, the AA called for a fundamental shift in the road safety approach, dominated by a "blame, crime and punishment model", and for a shift to injury prevention and education. "Road safety really works when the public is on board," Mr Noon said.
The AA wanted a decade of road safety action and said the Government should invest fine revenue in improving road safety.
About $100 million of annual revenue, or $1 billion over a decade, would make an enormous difference and save hundreds of lives.
