Impact of graduated driver licensing restrictions on crashes involving young drivers in New Zealand.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the impact on young driver crashes of the three main driving restrictions in the New Zealand graduated driver licensing (GDL) system: night-time curfew, no carrying of young passengers, and a blood alcohol limit of 30 mg/100 ml.


METHODS
The database for this study was created by linking police crash reports to hospital inpatient records (1980-95). Multivariate logistic regression was used to compare car crashes involving a young driver licensed before GDL (n=2,252) with those who held a restricted graduated licence (n=980) and with those who held a full graduated licence (n=1,273), for each of the main driving restrictions.


RESULTS
Compared with the pre-GDL group, the restricted licence drivers had fewer crashes at night (p=0.003), fewer involving passengers of all ages (p=0.018), and fewer where alcohol was suspected (p=0.034), but not fewer involving young casualties (p=0.980). Compared with the pre-GDL drivers, those with the full graduated licence had fewer night crashes (p=0.042) but did not differ significantly for any of the other factors examined.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that some of the GDL restrictions, especially the night-time curfew, have contributed to a reduction in serious crashes involving young drivers.
Begg
D J
DJ
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. dorothy.begg@ipru.otago.ac.nz
Stephenson
S
S
Alsop
J
J
Langley
J
J
D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand