L -plate drivers

ninna

Having 1 son go through learning for a whole year recently on 80km/hr was frustrating with the restrictions, it defeats the purpose of teaching them to drive in all kinds of traffic safely. The permit should be staged according to how long they have been on L's, such as after 6 months review their hours & increase it even by 5klm for another 3 or 6 months. Driving on a highway at 80kml that is limited to 1 lane each direction causes traffic to bank up & other drivers get frustrated & take stupid risks. Many times we were on the Princes Hwy south of Wollongong & there is no place to overtake safely, my son in respect to other drivers pulled over to let them past which in turn reduced the pressure of having a very annoyed driver sitting on their tail far too close(this included trucks!). Learners get to drive any sort of car including V8's, we were fortunate that he was able to drive a V8 car & a Landcruiser as well as 3 different family sized cars. But that skill will be lost once they go onto Red P's being limited to less powerful cars. The whole learning process needs to be revised to make it safer & more sensible, both go hand in hand when we are teaching our kids to drive safely but the rules don't cover it well enough for them in the long term.
Not all our learners & P plate drivers are risk takers, the penalties in place for mobile phone use prevents most these days but I cant say that for many of our more mature black/gold license drivers. No alcohol in their system is a great prevention but again it doesn't stop those not on L's or P's. I did witness what happens when a young driver texts their phone while driving, she lost her life in a headon which also traumatised the poor family who happened to be involved in that accident & those who had to stand by helplessly & watch her life taken when her car incinerated. That incident sent a big message to her friends once the story was spread to them, don't use yr phone while driving!
Penalties need to be tougher on older & more seasoned drivers and reduce them on the younger ones, they learn a lot more these days about safety & consequences than we did many years ago. I failed the online test that the learners practice on & have been a driver since 1978, I bet many older drivers would fail as well if you try since we never take a refresher course or test. That is something that should be addressed every 10 yrs in my opinion which would make us all better drivers aware of rules & include information about consequences. Ever visited a brain injury unit??? I have seen the victims of car accidents there, it is truly heartbreaking to see their lives taken from them due to someone's stupidity on the road & every driver should have to watch a film showing in graphic detail what can happen. All that is left of these victims is a shell of who they once were with no hope for recovery & most of that could have been avoided if we were all better drivers. Stop picking on the young drivers, most are better drivers than us older folk, start kicking butt on the older so called more experienced drivers. We have become stale in our skills & knowledge.