How Do Young Provisional Drivers Who Crash Early Compare With Those Who Only Crash Later?

9 August 2023

Many jurisdictions, including New South Wales (NSW), Australia, have introduced a graduated driver licensing system (GDLS). Young novice drivers undergo a specified number of hours (120 in NSW) learning to drive under supervision, before passing into one or two provisional driving phases (two in NSW, P1, P2) prior to full license. During these provisional phases, young novice drivers are unsupervised but are subject to several restrictions affecting, amongst others, limits in the carriage of young passengers at night-time in the first year, all phone use and alcohol consumption.

Much attention has been given to the elevated crash rates of young novice drivers when first driving unsupervised, particularly in the initial six months, but less to the question of whether those who crash during that period are in any way different from those who only crash subsequently.

Key findings of a report from  The Australasian College of Road Safety - https://acrs.org.au/ shows:

• Characteristics of young provisional drivers who crash early are under-researched
• Crashers differed from non-crashers in sex, age at first licensure and residence
• Early crashers spent more time under supervision than later crashers
• Early crashers had more offences and total crashes than later crashers