Power ban on young drivers - QLD

[Sledgehammer]

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December 29, 2006 11:00pm
Article from: The Courier-Mail


NEWLY licensed young drivers will be banned from driving high-performance vehicles under laws designed to arrest the state's rising road toll.
Drivers under 25 who obtain their provisional licence after July 1 next year will be prohibited from operating V8s and high-powered turbo and super-charged vehicles.

Up to 60,000 drivers each year will be affected by the laws, which also will include the introduction a three-year provisional licence.

Once drivers obtain their open licence they will be free to drive any registered vehicle.

Grieving father David Benjamin knows too well the danger of high-powered vehicles.

His daughter Alesha, 18, was killed when her boyfriend, 17, smashed his Holden Commodore into a powerpole on Brisbane's southside in May.

He is facing charges over Alesha's death.

"These kids should not have these vehicles because they are deadly," Mr Benjamin said.

"These laws are going to save a lot of kids lives and lot of parents the misery we've had to go through."

Drivers aged under 25 who receive an open-class or provisional licence before July 1 next year will be exempt from the new legislation.

Transport Minister Paul Lucas said it would have been unfair to introduce the laws retrospectively but a line had to be drawn somewhere.

"Young drivers behind the wheel of eight-cylinder cars involved in crashes in Queensland from 2001-2005 were twice as likely to be driving with excessive speed – 11.5 per cent – when compared with young drivers in cars with less than eight cylinders – 5.6 per cent," Mr Lucas said.

Unlike NSW and Victoria, Queensland will not list excluded cars but will provide a thorough definition and specifications of high-performance vehicles. Hundreds of cars will be off-limits.

The criteria, to be finalised in the first half of 2007, will not affect vehicles with small engines fitted with turbochargers, and are unlikely to target diesel-powered vehicles.

Mr Lucas said driving recklessly in a family four-cylinder car was dangerous but the added power of some vehicles, coupled with youthful inexperience and exuberance, was a recipe for disaster.

"Provisional drivers in particular are more at risk than learner drivers," Mr Lucas said.

"I don't subscribe to the view – particularly where parents supply cars to children – that once a child turns 18 they aren't subject to parental interest or control."

RACQ spokesman John Wikman said there needed to be an education campaign because the laws would be confusing.

"We are not totally against it but we wouldn't have gone and lobbied for it," Mr Wikman said.

"Police will have to be experts on different models of cars."

A police spokesman said officers were undergoing vehicle identification training and during random operations would often have a Queensland Transport expert on-site. He said it was proposed that police refer cars to Queensland Transport if uncertain whether it was turbocharged, supercharged or modified.