A coroner investigating the death of Christchurch City councillor and Paralympian Graham Condon has added her voice to the chorus calling for an urgent review of the minimum driving age.
The government needs to make the changes before there are more fatalities involving 15-year-old drivers, says Coroner Sue Johnson.
She was speaking at the inquest this week into the death of 58-year-old Condon, who was killed on September 8 last year when a car hit him while he was cycling.
The driver, a 15-year-old girl who has name suppression, had breached her restricted licence by having four friends in the car.
She admitted a charge of careless driving causing death and was disqualified from driving for two years and sentenced to 180 hours' community work.
On the same day Condon was killed, three 15-year-old girls died when the car they were in hit a power pole near Lincoln.
The driver was also on a restricted licence and not allowed to carry passengers.
Condon's wife, Kathy, who was supported by a large party of family and friends, told the inquest there was no way 15-year-olds were mature enough to drive safely.
"We both felt very strongly that 15 is too young to drive," she said. "Our two children didn't get their licences until they were 17."
Chief Coroner Neil MacLean and Canterbury road policing manager Derek Erasmus have already urged the government to hurry through a bill to lift the driving age, The Press reports.
Erasmus told the inquest that 11,000 notices for breaching licence conditions had been issued in Canterbury in each of the past three years.
"In my view, the best thing we could do is raise the driver licence age," he said.
An amendment to road safety legislation, backed by the government, has proposed raising the driving age to 16 and extending the time for a learner's licence from six to 12 months so that drivers would be 17 before they were able to drive alone.
The plan is before the parliamentary transport select committee and set to go out for submissions.
Johnson recommends the changes are "pursued urgently".
"Until they are, there will be further deaths involving 15-year-olds on restricted licences because some will lose attention due to their lack of maturity."
Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven says the public is of a mood to change the driving age.
The matter will be considered "in the very early days" of the next parliament, he says.
National has not taken a position on the amendments to raise the driving age, saying it will make a decision after hearing submissions to the select committee.
