Parents fudge kids' P-plate
hours
From AAP
By Joe Spagnolo
January 06, 2007
PARENTS are playing
Russian roulette with their children's lives by helping them cheat
on supervised driving training, the Road Safety Council claims.
Grant Dorrington,
the independent chairman of the council, said yesterday some parents
were signing children's log books, stating they had received 25 hours
supervised training knowing full well that was not true.
Teenagers could not get their
P-plates unless they had at least 25 hours supervised driving experience.
"We are led to believe
that there are cases where parents help manipulate the system because
they believe it's a pain in the neck or too hard, '' Mr Dorrington
said.
"We know it's happening
- that there are people who are cheating the system. How can anything
be too hard when it comes to helping protect a life?
"When you hand your children
the keys, you are potentially handing them a lethal weapon.
"At the end of the day
the welfare and the health of children is a parent's No.1 responsibility.
"If you cheat in any area
of your life, you are setting a bad example.
"But how do you make sure
people are doing the right thing? What do you do?''
Young men and women account
for most deaths on WA roads.
Last year, 37 people aged 17
to 20 died on our roads.
Liberal Party justice spokesman
Rob Johnson said he would try to convince his colleagues this year
that children should not be allowed to drive on WA roads until they
were at least 18, rather than 17.
He hoped this would become Liberal
Party policy leading up to the next election.
Mr Johnson said that in other
states and overseas, teenagers had to be 18 before they could drive
and WA should follow that example.
Mr Dorrington said the council
was keeping an eye on driver ages in other parts of the world and
was constantly reviewing the issue, but he was not convinced that
raising the P-plate age to 18 would necessarily save lives.
"An 18-year-old can be
as stupid as a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old can be worse,' he said.
"Some people who are 22-23
shouldn't be on our roads.
"The issue isn't so much
about what age someone should be when they get their driver's licence,
but about having the right attitudes and responsibilities.
"Some have that at 17,
some at 23 and some never have it.''
