Road toll high in the last 48h
It always amuses me to see how insurance companies, and a lot of officials try to say the young crowd are to blame for Victorian road tolls. If you’re male, under-25 years of age, you must be statistically high risk.
In fact, Noel Ashby, Victoria’s Assistant Commissioner for traffic & transport, recently said: “But we also have a generation of younger drivers in that
high-risk group who aren’t used to driving in wet and slippery
conditions.”
This was probably in relation to the fact that we had nine road tolls in the last 48-hours. A snippet of the deceased:
- 67-year old man - Mansfield
- 65-year old man - Craigieburn
- Man in his 30s, a motorcyclist in St. Kilda
The rest of the folk had no ages associated with them. Is it a safe assumption that they’re male, and under-25? No. I think there are many young drivers that are completely sensible, and have the required experience to be better drivers than those that got their licenses before the introduction of roundabouts (for instance).
What do you think of young drivers? Are you one yourself, fed up of paying an insurance premium to cover your possible accidents? Do tell us more…
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I’m almost 30yo. And I don’t drive. Never did.
Though, I’ll be getting my Learners in the June holidays.
Am I considered ‘risky’?
http://www.tacsafety.com.au/jsp/content/NavigationController.do?areaID=12&tierID=1&navID=CC348A57&navLink=null&pageID=171
In 2005, 30% of drivers killed were aged between 18 and 25 years. And yet, this age group only represents 14% of Victorian licence holders.
72% were males,…
Its pure statistics. Young people take more risks.
Many rental companies won’t even rent a car to you if you are under 25, in Australia and around the world.
I don’t have any experience driving on ice, does that mean I’m risky? It doesn’t rain much here, it’s a drought remember? Young drivers can’t be expected to be hugely experienced in the rain.
Young drivers get picked on, but older drivers have their long driving history to back them up - even though it is probably their deteriorating health causing the accidents.
Good luck to whoever wants to rock the boat with this one, but I think you’re pushing **** uphill :)
I agree with Noel in the spirit that I believe the statement was made. Young drivers, regardless of gender, are at greater risk due to their relative lack of experience.
I do know that I personally was at greater risk when I was younger because I was less experienced. I had a couple of accidents due to not being cautious enough in the wet. The margin for error is a lot smaller than some people realise. It was sheer luck that neither accident resulted in damage to properly, let alone harm to anyone. Both happened within a couple of years of getting my Ps.
As for the question of insurance premiums, the stats don’t seem to back it up. Page 7 shows that the percentage of driver deaths is higher for males, but fairly evenly distributed across the range of ages up to 59.
Ahem. That was page 7 of this pdf:
http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/2006/pdf/rda_ss_2005.pdf
I’m a 21 year old male driver that has been driving since I was 16, and I’ve never had an accident with another car (I think everyone has backed in to a pole once or twice in their life). I’m a careful driver and do my best to avoid risks at all times. On the other side of the coin I know of many drivers that are very careless, and ignore basic safety like paying attention to the road, keeping both hands on the wheel, indicating or checking mirrors. It’s highly likely these careless drivers are statistically over represented in my age group, but that doesn’t make me one of them. I do think setting insurance policies, and worse yet drafting legislations, based purely on demographics is rather unfair - it would be nice to see some more individual factors used in statistics, things such as results in driving tests, psychological profiles, even education level. If accompanied by statistics, such things are no less “fair” than demographics, and would give many of us more options to change things that affect our premium, rather than just waiting until we get older.
As recent as Thursday night, a 24 year old and his 23 year old girlfriend were killed in Prahran when they smashed their Lotus Elise on Punt Rd.