Passenger abd night-time restrictions for Provisional 1 licence holders in South Australia – a crash database analysis.

A Bill proposing a number of changes to the current South Australian Graduated Licensing Scheme (GLS) was introduced into the South Australian Parliament in July 2013. One of its goals is to provide greater protection for young drivers in their first year of driving and thereby reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries to young road users on South Australian roads. Proposed initiatives include a passenger restriction and a night-time driving restriction for Provisional (P1) licence holders.
An analysis was undertaken to determine how many crashes and resulting casualties involving young drivers/riders had the potential to be prevented if the two proposed initiatives had been implemented five years ago in 2008. This analysis examined individual casualty crashes of all P1 drivers/riders aged 16-24 that were involved in casualty crashes between 2008 and 2012. All casualty crashes that fell within the scope of the two proposed initiatives were considered. The ages of injured passengers were determined, where possible, and the time of the crash. The estimated casualties that resulted from these crashes were then calculated. From this analysis, it was found that overall the total number of casualties that potentially could have been prevented over the period 2008-2012 was: 22 fatalities (an average of 4 per year); 240 serious injuries (an average of 48 per year); 1397 minor injuries (an average of 279 per year). This analysis could be used to provide an understanding in terms of real lives that could potentially be affected as a way to communicate to the general community the safety benefits of the proposals.