PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Begg, D J
AU  - Stephenson, S
AU  - Alsop, J
AU  - Langley, J
TI  - Impact of graduated driver licensing restrictions on crashes involving young drivers in New Zealand
AID  - 10.1136/ip.7.4.292
DP  - 2001 Dec 01
TA  - Injury Prevention
PG  - 292--296
VI  - 7
IP  - 4
4099  - http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/7/4/292.short
4100  - http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/7/4/292.full
SO  - Inj Prev2001 Dec 01; 7
AB  - 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. Method—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=2252) with those who held a restricted graduated licence (n=980) and with those who held a full graduated licence (n=1273), 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. Conclusion—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.