Slide 1-Title page Slide 2-Contents page Slide 3-15 years old is too immature Slide 4-Drinking age is 18 Slide 5-Crash statistics Slide 6-Would more instruction time help? Slide 7-If the licence age is raised what would it look like? Slide 8-Conclusion

*It is argued that 15 year olds are still far to immature to be responsible behind the wheel of a car. *It has been proven that their brains are not mature enough to deal with the responsibility of driving a vehicle at that young age. (NZ Politics website). *Dr Rober Isler a psychology lecturer at Waikato university explains that because the frontal lobe - responsible for skills such as judgment, self- control and the ability to plan - did not fully develop until a person was 25. It could take a 15-year-old up to 30 per cent longer than an experienced driver to respond to problems on the road. For the first six months of driving unsupervised on a restricted licence, a 15-year-old was 19 times more at risk of a mishap than a 25- year-old with driving experience.(Move to New Zealand website).

*In New Zealand we do not feel that young people are responsible enough to drink until they are 18 years old, but we let them behind the wheel of a car at 15 years old! * Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes. (NIAAA website).

*Young people are over-represented in the crash statistics. Young people aged 15–24 years are 14.5 percent of New Zealand’s population and 16 percent of all licensed drivers. Yet in 2008 they were involved in around 37 percent of all fatal crashes and 38 percent of all serious injury crashes. *International research indicates that, particularly before the age of 18, the lower the age a person starts driving solo, the higher the crash risk. This risk is greatest at age 15. (Ministry of Transport).

*Introducing a defensive driving course as a compulsory part of attaining a driving licence will help with not only youngsters, but adults from other countries who get their licences here but certainly don't know how to drive properly, especially on NZ roads and in the weather conditions of this country.(Politics New Zealand). *So in my view after looking into this more instruction time would be beneficial to young people getting their drivers licence. Whether that be at 15 or 18 years of age.

*Learners licence would be held for 6 months from 18 years old. *Restricted licence would be held for 18 months. *Drivers would not be able to get their full licence until 20 years old. *Currently young people get their full licence at 18 years old.

*Based on the issues that I have raised in this PowerPoint I believe that New Zealand should raise the driving age to 18. *This would allow young people time to mature before placing themselves behind the wheel of a car. What do you think?