Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today announced that more young people will be supported to gain their restricted licence, through a new scheme backed by the NZ Transport Agency and Ministry of Social Development.
“Earning a driver licence helps to instil safe driving habits and can reduce serious harm on our roads,” the Transport Agency’s Senior Manager of Strategic Interventions Lisa Rossiter says.
“Through this scheme, more young people will be supported to get their restricted driver licence and start building on the experience and skills they learned from going through the learner licence phase.”
Young people are overrepresented in crash statistics - over the last five years, young drivers who have never held a driver licence were involved in 165 fatal or serious injury crashes.
“The number of young people killed and seriously injured on our roads every year represents a tragic waste of life and potential. We are committed to turning these figures around,” Ms Rossiter says.
“Improving safety is our top priority and this scheme is part of a much wider focus by the NZ Transport Agency to improve road safety.
“It follows our young driver campaign aimed at raising awareness about vehicle safety ratings and supporting parents to put their teen in a car with a high star rating.
“The scheme supports the Safe System approach. It’s all about making our transport system much more forgiving of human error. By taking human fallibility and vulnerability into account we can reduce serious road trauma.”
