Amnesty call for provisional licence holders
29 December 2002: The young driver insurance lobby group MIJAG says any changes to the Provisional Licence rules 'should involve an amnesty' for the hundreds of thousands of long term provisional licence holders who have years of accident free driving.
And MIJAG national organiser Mick Murphy also says the 'arcane' system of testing first introduced in 1964 should be overhauled with the emphasis put on training and re-training.
He said that NRA statistics show that there is only a marginal difference between the number of people involved in accidents holding provisional as opposed to full licence.
"Getting experience under safe conditions during the first few months of driving is important and that is what should be tackled first," he said. "Several US states operate a system where 16 year olds drive accompanied for their first six months and are not on the road after 11pm. This sort of system along with training is important for beginners.
"After that driver behaviour is more likely to be affected by enforcement of speeds limits, penalty points etc. Once this initial experience is gained the chances of a young person being involved in an accident are not much higher than an older driver.