Legal Young Drivers and the Law

Wider society refers to them as hooligans and probably always will. So why should they feel the need to adapt to the era of ‘young drivers’ in order to suit the changing behavioural patterns of young drivers. Young drivers are those who are under the age of 25 and posses a valid driver’s licence. Who causes the most accidents on Australian roads? Why is this-the case? What has been done? And what needs to be done? Young drivers (17-25 years) represent one-quarter of all Australian road deaths, but are only 10-15% of the licensed driver population. Currently the task of providing accurate and relevant driver education is in practise to ensure the safety of both young drivers but also other road users.
The major contributor to the somewhat hatred show towards young drivers is the accidents they cause. In these accidents they not only affect themselves but also innocent civilians or fellow drivers. An example of this can be found on May 18, 2012 when a young driver aged 22 (male) hit an elderly (80y/o) man with his Suzuki Swift (make of car), near Bunbury. The elderly man went on to die a short week later in hospital the coroner concluded his death was due to the injuries attained not by any existing illness or old age. Police describe this as a “cowardly, stupid and lunatic act”. The 22 year old male is awaiting his trial. But regardless of what the law concludes the family of the elderly man stuck will never get their husband, brother, father or grandad back. This act of ‘lunacy’ should be stopped before it occurs because the consequences are real and human lives are at stake. From this cowardly act and others simular society is unable to change the view they have on young drivers. In even some ways they are manipulated into believing by the actions of young drivers that they are hooligans.
Furthermore society’s beliefs have become very widely appreciated on the topic of young drivers. Society has a great influence on the law on this particular issue. There are many custom made laws designed to suit young drivers and yes these have been influenced in some way by society. The summaries of some of the laws follow, you have to hold your learner’s licence for 12 months and get 120 hours of supervised driving experience shown in a logbook, you can’t use a mobile phone at all while driving this extends to all passengers, you can only have one passenger under 21 from 11.00pm to 5.00am, you are not permitted to drive a high powered vehicle, a driver knowledge test must be passed, eyesight test must be passed, BAC of zero and maximum speed restrictions. This shows society does fell strongly on this issue given innocent lives are being lost for no apparent reason other than recklessness and this concern and input is considered in the law making process regarding young drivers. Society does think of young drivers as hooligans though they do show concern in the laws regarding them only because they fear for the safety of themselves and their loved ones.
Early in the licensing process society did accept the fact that young drivers will be issued with their licences at a relatively young age. Though at this stage young drivers saw this as a privilege and arguable they were the safest drivers on the road, of course this was because of their attitude to driving. They saw it as a privilege meaning their friends did too and they drove because they had to. Nowadays however, young drivers see it as a right to attain a driver’s licence, they drive for pleasure not because they have to and they belief driving gives them a personal identity. Young drivers belief that driving a car; is a way of projecting a particular image of themselves, gives them a feeling of pride and power. From this information and statistics found the attitude of young drivers towards road safety has deteriorated dramatically. It has been proven that young drivers are 47% more likely to be involved in traffic offences. The argued reason for this is because they are ‘thrill seekers’. It has also been proven that young drivers rate themselves lower on safety-mindedness than do older drivers. This is because they lack enough knowledge, their motivations promoting ill driving is far greater than their motivations deterring it, this meaning that school based driver education is vital. From this assessment of young driver attitudes I can reach the conclusion that societies attitude towards young drivers was at first positive but as young drivers demonstrated lawlessness society began to refer to them as hooligans.

In such an important issue the law is attempting to reform in order to lessen casualties, though this reform is taking far too much time at the cost of innocent lives. Some areas of the reform for example the strict penalties introduced involving drink driving and speeding seem to be quite effective in lessening these issues. However, the introduced speed maximums for young drivers appears pointless and not properly though out because enforcing maximum speeds will only tempt young drivers to speed in order to go the same speed as other drivers or maximum street legal limit.

Young drivers are referred to as hooligans. This is because they cause the most accidents on Australian roads because they are thrill seekers, not enough has been done to clam this search for thrill and school based driver education is required to lift this name assigned to them. Society did have a positive view towards young drivers until the attitude to young drivers towards driving changed. After this attitude shit they began to refer the term hooligans to young drivers. The legal system is unable to create legislation at a rapid rate to counteract the defiance being showed. The penalties are too lenient providing room for re-offence. The conclusion can be reached that the legal system is somewhat effective in response to this shift in attitude. The term hooligans will always remain with young drivers until their motivations for safe driving does not overwhelm their motivation for ill driving.

Bibliography: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/man-80-pedestrian-dies-after-lake-clifton-crash/story-e6frg13u-1226398554554 Used to attain case http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/323/30713_1.pdf?sequence=1 Used to gain statistics on young drivers http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/handle/10072/323 Used to gain statistics on young drivers http://www.youngdriverfactbase.com/the-issues/driver-education/ Understand the issues that need to be reviewed concerning young drivers http://www.youngdriverfactbase.com/ Understand the issues that need to be reviewed concerning young drivers
School Legal textbook (CD drive)
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Classnotes
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