Red and Green P Plate Restrictions
Young Driver Restrictions and Why Do We Have Them.
Firstly what are the Young Driver Restrictions and who do they apply to?
P1 – Red plate must be displayed for the first 12 months of driving for any driver under the age of 25. To move to the P2 licence you must pass and pay for the Hazard Perception Test which can be done online.
P2 – Green plate must be displayed for 2 years for any driver under the age of 25. Once the 2 years is completed you will automatically be upgraded to an Open licence.
Restrictions P1
- BAC 0.000
- You must carry your licence with you at all times.
- No mobile phone use even on Hands free or loudspeaker and passengers are not to use one on loudspeaker.
- Must not have more than one person under the age of 21, outside immediate family members, in the car between 11.00 pm and 5.00 am.
- Adhere to the high powered vehicle restrictions unless exemption has been granted.
Restrictions P2
- BAC 0.000
- You must carry your licence with you at all times.
- Can only use a mobile phone on a Hands free, and passengers can speak on loudspeaker if necessary.
- Adhere to the high powered vehicle restrictions unless exemption has been granted.
Now we know what the restrictions are, why do we need them?
The short answer to this question is for your own safety.
In today’s society we are all attached to our mobile phones but young people more than other age groups. According to research we are all 4 times more likely to be involved in a crash using our phones while driving. Distraction is one of the fatal five causes of deaths and serious injury in car crashes and using our phones while driving is very distracting. We can become very absorbed in a conversation and miss important information while driving. It will certainly add seconds to our reaction time which could be the difference between avoiding a crash or being in one. People will say but I can have a conversation with a passenger and still drive and that is correct but the passenger can also see what is happening ahead and will probably stop talking if need be and is also another set of eyes to help see things ahead.
Distraction
In Australia, distraction has been identified as a contributing factor in 22% of car accidents and a staggering 71% of truck accidents. It’s also been identified as a contributing factor in 46% of ‘near crashes’. Experts believe that using a mobile phone while driving greatly impacts your ability to concentrate on driving.
Texting is even more dangerous. How many times have you been following or approaching a driver and see them swerving only to find they are on the phone, and it isn’t just young drivers. It takes many seconds for our primary vision to focus on a mobile screen and read every time we look at the phone, look up for a second, only to look down again to reread. These are vital seconds when we are moving up the road at 16 mts/sec at 60 klms/hour, 28mts/sec at 100 klms/hour. We can have covered a lot of road while we are checking a message. Is that message that important? If it is it needs much more of our attention, so pull over to somewhere safe, turn off the car and read the message.
Passengers
The passenger restriction is definately there to protect young drivers. New drivers can become the designated drivers a lot of the time as they are too young to drink legally. Usually it is late when they are picking people up who may be under the influence of alcohol, who are usually loud and distracting to the driver, who may want the music up loud because they are in a happy mood and may not be as behaved in the car as they could be. All of these things together can make driving very difficult for any driver, but especially new drivers and can severely affect their reaction time if needed.
And the power restriction sounds like it is there just to take away your fun but it isn’t. Cars are very powerful now compared to when I first got my licence many, many years ago. My first car was a Mini which had about 850cc motor and you really knew it when you were doing 100 klm/hour. We all want to think we are the best drivers and have lots of skills but let’s face it, what have we done to be great drivers, only passed a 30 min driving test. Wouldn’t it be better to drive something smaller until we have a bit more experience driving?
For more information about this topic or to go back to Home Page
www.roadsafety.gov.au/performance/road-deaths-age-group.aspx
https://research.qut.edu.au/carrsq/wp-content/…/Mobile-phone-distraction-email.pdf