Call for young drivers to take care on roads
Reporter: Mick O'Donnell
KERRY O'BRIEN: One-third of all car accident fatalities are drivers under 25.
A sobering statistic, prompting Transport Minister John Anderson to bring teenage driving into the current campaign.
Today he promised to introduce compulsory training for young drivers.
It adds to the debate over how to reduce odds of tragedies similar to one that claimed four lives in Perth on the weekend.
Some road safety experts are now pushing for controls on night driving and passengers for P platers.
But would such measures stop the carnage?
Mick O'Donnell reports.
MRS McBRIDE: Words can't describe him.
He's touched everybody's hearts.
He was my husband's best friend.
CHRIS McBRIDE: He was my very best mate.
Always.
MICK O'DONNELL: Andrew McBride, aged 21, died on Saturday night in Perth in a car driven by his 17-year-old girlfriend, Amy McInnes.
CHRIS McBRIDE: Some good to come from what's happened to them and I want to encourage debate on what we can do for young drivers.
MICK O'DONNELL: Late on Saturday, Amy McInnes - still on her P plates - volunteered to collect her boyfriend from a party.
With her younger sister and another friend in the car, she lost control at the wheel and struck an oncoming Kombi around midnight.
Four died immediately and Amy's sister remains in a coma in hospital.
This and a spate of road fatalities involving young drivers has prompted calls for more controls on P platers.
PETER PALOMARA, INJURY RESEARCH CENTRE UWA: We want the community to recognise that there is a period when you're initially licensed which is a high-risk period for involvement in a crash.
MICK O'DONNELL: Road safety experts nationwide are pushing for a curfew on drivers in their first six to 12 months.
If they are driving between, say, 10pm and 5am, or if they have passengers in the car, they should have a supervising older driver with them.
PETER PALOMARA: We would like young drivers to get experience, but under a condition that actually minimise their exposure to that high situation.
MICK O'DONNELL: Others, like Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, say compulsory defensive driver training for P platers is the answer.
JOHN ANDERSON, TRANSPORT MINISTER: Every young life saved is a tragedy averted, a human tragedy prevented and we simply have to do more in the area of training our young drivers.
ROBERT PIKE: Look what happened to me.
I've lost both my legs, lost all my friends, you know.
It isn't just someone else.
It can happen to you.
MICK O'DONNELL: Three friends died in the crash that nearly killed Robert Pike in Perth a few years ago.
ROBERT PIKE: I spend my night waking up screaming and, you know, just wanting help.
MICK O'DONNELL: Forcing him to think hard about what could have saved his friends.
ROBERT PIKE: Young drivers these days, they just take their lives for granted, you know, they drive very recklessly.
MICK O'DONNELL: The 7:30 Report spoke to four young drivers who have all been too close to tragedy for their ideas on what could save lives.
Tom Bonavia changed his driving behaviour and made this student documentary to wake up his friends after a young mate died in a smash last year.
MOVIE BLACKTOP, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME:
YOUTH NUMBER ONE: Whatever the police do, whatever they put in place, it's not gonna stop us.
YOUTH NUMBER TWO: Man, the cops!
The police, (bleep), the police, man!
TOM BONAVIA: I was angry with him.
I was angry with myself.
I say we're all responsible the moment we put the foot down, the moment we went over the speed limit.
MICK O'DONNELL: He remembers egging his dead friend on in road races late at night.
TOM BONAVIA: Yeah, doing about 120km/h, 140km/h, taking roundabouts the wrong way, just so I can overtake him and keep going.
BOON-PIN LAW: You know, we're young.
We're not going to die so young.
MICK O'DONNELL: Boon-Pin Law almost died in a crash which killed his best friend in suburban Perth a few years ago.
BOON-PIN LAW: We tried to overtake another vehicle which had earlier on passed us and we were all egging the driver, Chee, on.
MICK O'DONNELL: The driver was convicted of reckless driving occasioning death and grievous bodily harm.
BOON-PIN LAW: What I blame is our ignorance as young drivers, as teenagers, to not know the value of life.
MICK O'DONNELL: Abby Laird grew up with close friend Brodie Davidson, all 17 years, until his death here in a two car crash in Perth's suburbs six weeks ago.
ABBY LAIRD: One day everyone's playing happy families and everyone's fine and then the next day, two, three, maybe more families are absolutely shattered.
Statistics show that it's mainly males, but I know that when I've been in the car, my girlfriends have said, like, "overtake him," and just, I don't know, kind of egging me on to do something.
MICK O'DONNELL: These are the stories behind the statistics which have led experts like Teresa Senserrick at Melbourne's Monash Accident Research Centre to demand change.
TERESA SENSERRICK, ACCIDENT RESEARCH CENTRE, MONASH UNIVERSITY: As a learner, you are driving at the safest period of driving, you are at your lowest risk, and then you change to your provisional or probationary licence where the first six months is the highest risk you face as a driver.
MICK O'DONNELL: Rather than a simple strict curfew, Teresa Senserrick says P platers should have experienced supervising drivers with them when they're in stress situations, as with young passengers in the car, or, as in some US states, when driving late at night.
TERESA SENSERRICK: In some places in the US, it's led to a 60 per cent reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes during the restricted hours.
MICK O'DONNELL: But these young drivers, with bitter experience behind them, say such changes would need tough enforcement.
ROBERT PIKE: If you say they can't drive or you ban them from driving or put a curfew on them, the young drivers will drive after that time.
They'll just do it illegally.
ABBY LAIRD: The more influence in the car from the passengers onto the driver is a big factor.
BOON-PIN LAW: Need to be a little bit more harsh for those offenders so that teaches them a lesson.
MICK O'DONNELL: All of them agree on the need for their stories to reach other young people like themselves.
Chris McBride, too, wants his son's tragic tale to prompt a serious national discussion.
CHRIS McBRIDE: And I want Andrew, I want that to be his legacy to the people of Perth, the people of Australia.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Mick O'Donnell.
