Young drivers in New Zealand are committing around 40% fewer traffic offences than a decade ago but more work is needed to address remaining high youth fatality rates from road crashes, the Automobile Association has said.
In 2016, the AA Research Foundation released a report into youth (15-19 year old) traffic offences that showed a substantial decline in offending between 2009 and 2013. The Foundation has recently gathered the latest data showing this downward trend has continued to 2024.
“Factoring in the substantial increase in young drivers over that time, overall offending rates have fallen by 41%, drunk and drugged driving by 58% and seatbelt offences by 52%,” said AA road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen.
“That’s a real positive and demonstrates that we are heading in the right direction with the various road safety initiatives and legislative and policy changes that have been undertaken over time.”
Alongside the downward trend in offending, youth fatality rates from road crashes have also fallen. However, they remain tragically high,” added Dylan.
“New Zealand’s young drivers have the highest rates of road deaths in the OECD. These rates are substantially above older age groups in New Zealand.
New Zealand currently has about 90 deaths and 600 serious injuries a year from crashes where a young driver is judged to be at fault, according to Ministry of Transport data.
