New road rules for young drivers are being introduced today in Queensland.

These are;

Doubling of the minimum learner period from six to twelve months.

Learner licences to be issued at the age of 16.

Learners to be required to record 100 hours of supervised on-road driving experience in a log book.

High-powered vehicle restrictions to apply for young drivers.

Tougher powers for police to confiscate cars from repeat drink-drivers and disqualified drivers.

P plates to be reintroduced, with P1 and P2 categories. The first applying for one year and the second for two years. Stronger restrictions apply for P1 driver as follows;

P1 drivers can only carry one passenger aged under 21 between 11pm and 5am.

All mobile phone use, including loudspeaker, is banned.

Hands-free mobile use is banned for supervisors and passengers.

Ok. Good. These are tangible improvements in road safety regulations. But…..why has it taken this long?

These steps pretty much follow the suggestions from RACQ, given in response to a government-solicited study…well over a year ago.

Publicity leaves a lot to be desired. A television ad campaign has been running for some time, but it doesn't express any detail. There is scant little else. There was a small article on page 9 of the Townsville Bulletin (my local paper) yesterday (no edition today). There was nothing in the Courier Mail (Queensland’s main newspaper) yesterday, and a brief article appears on page 22 of today’s Sunday Mail!!

There is NO mention of new rules on the Qld Government website. Nothing under Qld Dept of Transport, which touts the latest update to be 29 June! And nothing on the RACQ (Royal Automobile Club of Queensland) website.

This is truly extraordinary!

SURELY new laws that affect a large section of our community MUST be accompanied with maximised publicity!!

And SURELY all the necessary information MUST be easily accessible on a website that is mentioned in ALL publicity!

So while at first impressions the new rules seem good, delving a little deeper makes them seem like a really pissy half-hearted token effort.

Well how about that. Not one single response.

Out of the many hundreds of readers and contributors to this forum, no one was concerned enough to off a comment.

Man, that’s extraordinary.

So now it is crystal clear to me why the government doesn’t put a concerted effort into this issue….

Because there is STUFF ALL real concern in the general community.

It really is true that our community, right across the country, has basically resigned itself to the death rate on our roads.

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I am profoundly disgusted.

Yep. I am absolutely profoundly completely disgusted.