Moves to raise the driving age and to cut the youth blood-alcohol level to zero will help reduce the road death and injury toll, University of Otago researcher Dr Dorothy Begg says.
Dr Begg, who is a senior research fellow in the university's Injury Prevention Research Unit, said that the road death toll among New Zealand 15- to 24-year-olds had been about 300 before the graduated driver-licensing system was introduced in 1987.
Before this, young people could obtain a full-privilege driver's licence when they turned 15.
Under the graduated system, learner drivers must be supervised at all times by someone who has held a full car driver's licence for at least two years.
During the later restricted-licence phase, the licence holder can drive unsupervised, except between 10pm and 5am, but can be accompanied only by the driver's spouse or partner and dependants.
Ministry of Transport data shows that young drivers, aged 15 to 24, comprise 16% of all licensed drivers but in 2008 were involved in about 37% of all fatal crashes.
New Zealand 15- to 17-year-olds also had the highest road-death rate in the OECD, on a population basis, that year, the ministry said.
Dr Begg said that proposed changes, including raising the driving age to 16, recently announced by the Government were "a good start".
"They are measures that should actually have some impact in reducing the road toll," she said.
Another key measure, also to be considered by Cabinet, is to reduce the youth blood-alcohol limit to zero.
"Taking alcohol out of the whole equation would be great," she said.
Alcohol and young people were "really not a good mix", she added.
Dr Begg said that 117 people aged between 15 and 24 had died on New Zealand roads in 2008, including 51 car drivers and 45 passengers in cars.
Eight hundred serious injuries also resulted, ministry figures show.
Dr Begg said it was very encouraging the ministry was taking a strong interest in the latest road-safety research being carried out by the Otago unit, and it was time for further measures to reduce the road toll.
An Otago research briefing held in Wellington last year produced a "huge response", with the ministry and other agencies such as the police attending.
Dr Begg is principal investigator in the New Zealand Drivers Study, a comprehensive study involving about 4000 newly licensed drivers.
