Teen drivers a 'major menace'

TRAFFIC authorities arrest a staggering 2000 unlicensed teenage drivers a month - most of them pupils.

At least 16 youngsters have lost their lives since October in five separate accidents involving young, unlicensed drivers.

In a bid to stop the carnage on the roads, the Department of Transport's parastatal, the Road Traffic Management Corporation , has proposed imposing tough restrictions on newly licensed drivers.

These include limiting for three years the number of passengers they are allowed.

Novice drivers could also be banned from driving high-performance vehicles for a certain period.

Recent crashes involving unlicensed teenage drivers include:

• Seven youths, including the 16-year-old driver, died when their bakkie overturned between Thulamahashe and Dwarsloop in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, on New Year's Eve;
• Cape Town teenagers Keenan Smith, Leigh Anne Swail and Kelly-Jade Ford, all 18, were crushed to death in a collision with a bus in Strandfontein on November 24 last year. Smith, the driver, did not have a licence;
• Manoko Lekgoala, 9, and Precious Magaela, 12, from Ebony Park Primary School in Midrand, were killed when a car driven by a 16-year-old unlicensed driver ploughed into them in Kaalfontein on November 5 last year; and
• Ntando Mqhobokazi, 18, Celiwe Shekwa, 14, and Nkosinathi Mkhabela, 17, from Zenzile Secondary School in Goba, near Malalane, Mpumalanga, died on January 25 after being struck by a car driven by Hhatiane Sibiya, 20. He appeared in the Tonga Magistrate's Court last week for a bail application.

A Durban father was killed in January 2011 when a teenager driving a high-powered BMW M3 crashed into his car. The boy was 17 .

Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesman Ashref Ismail said drivers were fined between R500 and R1000 for either driving without a licence or being in possession of an expired one.

"A substantial number of teenagers are prosecuted for driving cars without licences. It's not uncommon to find situations where parents are fully aware of it. It starts with them allowing the children to back the car out of the driveway and it slowly graduates to driving it down the road."

Ismail said preventing newly licensed drivers from applying for a professional driver's permit for a specified period was important "because we can't have a guy who got his driver's licence yesterday now suddenly driving a bus full of school children". He also believes the courts should prosecute parents who allow unlicensed teenagers to drive their cars.

The new proposals, which are being debated in a technical committee on road safety management, will be tabled by the Department of Transport before they are gazetted.