For many young people, getting a drivers licence is one of the most important things they want to do in their life.  However, it is also one of the riskiest things they will ever do.

The over-involvement of young drivers in road crashes is known throughout Australia to be a serious road safety problem. In South Australia, people aged 16 to 24 years make up 12% of the population, but account for 27% of road fatalities and 30% of serious injuries.  Also, young drivers have a significantly higher risk of death relative to the number of kilometres they drive, compared to other driver age groups.

Research has shown that younger drivers, particularly males, have certain attributes that contribute to their higher risk of road crashes.  These include:

• a greater inclination for risk taking
• the use of older vehicles with fewer safety features
• a greater susceptibility to inappropriate peer pressure and other driver distractions such as mobile phone use
• driving too fast for the road conditions
• not allowing appropriate space between vehicles
• running red lights.

The South Australian Graduated Licensing Scheme for novice drivers aims to improve young driver safety by:

• Increasing the experience of young drivers.
• Reducing the driving risks for young drivers.

Important changes are being proposed for L and P drivers. Research shows that crashes are most likely to occur during the first 6 to 12 months of holding a provisional licence when the driver is least experienced and driving unsupervised. Inexperience is the most significant factor contributing to young driver crashes and in that first year of driving unsupervised the risk of crashing is up to three times higher than that of an experienced driver. Read through the discussion paper (PDF).

View South Australian young driver statistics (PDF).