By CHRISTIANE BARRO
Experts have warned against lowering Victoria’s driving age to 17, saying young drivers are mentally unequipped to cope with solo driving.
This follows a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into lowering the licence age.
Monash University Accident Research Centre Associate Professor Jennifer Oxley said brain maturation was “just not there at that age”.
The centre's report Understanding novice driver behaviour found an elevated crash risk was largely accredited to immature brain functioning and under-developed cognitive-perceptual skills.
This could be a detriment to young drivers, A/Prof Oxley said, because hazard perception skills and inhibition control “wouldn’t be as developed”.
The report also found young drivers lacked the ability to multi-task and the ability to predict the consequences of certain actions. Their emotions were heightened when driving, meaning they would take longer to make a “mature judgment”.
Their safety was also compromised because young drivers felt overly confident and as a result tended to “under-estimate the risk of crash involvement and over-estimate their own driving skills”, the report found.
A/Prof Oxley said the parts of the brain that controlled safe driving did develop entirely until age 25.
Lowering the driving age would lead to an increase in the “number of young drivers with inexperience on the road” which would consequently “result in an increase in deaths and serious injuries”, she said.
Western Victorian Upper House MP James Purcell headed the inquiry, after concerns had been raised about limited public transport and a lack of job prospects for teenagers.
Werribee teenager Khalid Issa, then aged 16 and in high school, started a petition last year to lower the age for drivers to receive their probationary licence to 17. Over 28,000 people have signed.
“It’s a bit surprising how far it's come … just to think something I started which at the beginning I didn’t take very seriously," Khalid said.
He said teenagers who chose to work or complete a trade were often disadvantaged when applying for a job.
“A lot of employers will put you pretty much on the bottom priority compared to other people with a licence … it's not that uncommon for employers to say things like that to 17-year-olds,” he said.
From a safety perspective, A/Prof Oxley said this was not a “good reason” for drivers to receive their probationary licence at 17.
The Transport Accident Commission recorded 252 deaths on Victorian roads in 2015.
In a statement to The Age, VicRoads estimated if Victoria were to lower the driving age from 18 to 17, 13 more people would die and 200 more would be seriously injured each year.
“Even if there was one more life lost, that to me is not worth considering,” A/Prof Oxley said.
Khalid said critics were "focusing on the wrong variables” and needed to concentrate instead on appropriate driver training.
According to the Youth Affairs Council Victoria, the Victorian Labor Party promises to ensure that by 2018, year 10 students with an L-plate will complete a mandatory half-day defensive driver training course to attain their P-plates.
This is part of the $24.4 million investment into the Road Safety Starts Early plan.
Victoria is the only state were the legal driving age is 18. In most states it is 17, but often with extra safety restrictions in place. Drivers on P1-plates can go no faster than 80 km/h in Tasmania and 90km/h in NSW.
“Victoria at the moment is one of the safer jurisdictions in Australia, certainly for young drivers,” A/Prof Oxley said.
What you said
Mojonews.com.au was in Melbourne’s CBD to gauge what the public really thought of reducing the driving age to 17.
The State Parliament's Law Reform, Road and Community Safety Committee will be accepting submissions into the enquiry until May 30. It will then hold public hearings across Melbourne and regional Victoria.