Steven Joyce

Wellington, March 3 NZPA - New Zealanders could face a raft of new driving rules later this year under proposals unveiled by Transport Minister Steven Joyce today.

Young drivers, drunk drivers and motorcyclists -- over-represented in the death and injury statistics -- are the main targets in the new Transport Ministry 10-year road safety strategy, Safer Journeys.

Among the proposals are:

* Raising the driving age to 16;

* Tougher restricted licence testing to encourage 120 hours of supervised driving practice;

* A zero drink-drive limit for drivers under 20;

* For repeat drink drivers, compulsory alcohol interlocks and a zero drink-drive limit;

* Investigating reducing the current adult blood alcohol consumption limit from 80mg/100ml (0.08) to 50mg/100ml (0.05);

* Investigating vehicle power restrictions for young drivers;

* Changing the current right hand rule for intersections;

* Improving motorcycle rider training and licensing;

* Licence required for mopeds.

Mr Joyce said the measures drew on experience of other countries which had been more successful that New Zealand in combating road deaths, and attacked problem areas where real gains could be made.

The road toll had more than halved since its peak in 1973, but New Zealand still did not compare favourably with countries like Australia and Britain, he said.

Last year's tally of 384 road deaths was the second lowest road toll ever, but if New Zealand had the same fatality rate as Australia it would have been 298 deaths, and it had Britain's rate, it would have been just 186 deaths.

"We can debate until the cows come home, and we have, about which of those initiatives is the most important, but the reality is most Australian states have these laws in place today and their youth fatality rate is 60 percent less than ours."

None of the actions was a silver bullet on its own, but combined they could make a difference, he said.

"We can't do it on our own, we need buy-in from road users if we are to make an impact on the road toll."

Mr Joyce said the option of compulsory third party insurance needed to be researched before the Government could be confident it would make a difference.

The package will be taken to Cabinet in April.

Mr Joyce will also seek then to either lower the adult limit or conduct research into how much risk drivers who had between 0.05 and 0.08 alcohol in their blood were.

He stressed no decision had been made on reducing the blood alcohol limit. Most New Zealanders agreed the limit should be lower but were split when asked if it should be lowered to 0.05.

Among the proposals is a change for the country's idiosyncratic right hand turn rule at intersections.

"The current rules are confusing and we are out of step with the rest of the world.," Mr Joyce said.

Changing the rules to align with other countries would reduce intersection crashes by 7 percent and the social cost by about $17 million a year, he said.

Changing the rule would also go to Cabinet later in the year and public input would be sought. The New Zealand Transport Agency would develop a mass media campaign before changes came in.