NEW ZEALAND’S REVISED GRADUATED

On August 1st 1987 New Zealand became the first country in the world to introduce a graduated driver licensing system. The system was intended to address the over-representation of beginning drivers in crashes. Later evaluations of the system showed that there had been an initial drop of about 25 % in novice driver casualties. This resulted mainly from the drop in exposure as young people were deterred from early licensing. Nevertheless a durable reduction of about 8 % in respect of drivers aged 15-19 years of age was achieved. Ten year's later was an appropriate time to review the system. The Land Transport Safety Authority conducted the largest round of public consultation ever conducted by a New Zealand government department. Over fifty thousand public submissions were received. At the same time a worldwide literature review of best practice was conducted. The New Zealand graduated licensing system, while comprehensive, did not include any form of assessment to graduate from restricted to full licence status. It was decided that a test should be constructed to assess the safe driving skills and abilities of restricted licence holders wishing to “graduate ” to full licence status after at least 18 months of solo driving. It was intended that the test address the problems of New Zealand novice drivers in New Zealand conditions. In 1998 a team of Australian consultants were contracted to develop a Full Licence Test. Land Transport Safety Authority specified that the test was to focus on the driver’s situational awareness, visual scanning skills, hazard identification skills, attention allocation and proactive or reactive hazard avoidance skills. Elements of vehicle control, manoeuvring and adherence to road rules were also to be included. RoSPA 65th Road Safety Congress Page 2 of