Restricted licence time frame

[PrincessBandit]

If I cause an accident after 10pm I'm pretty much screwed if it's anything expensive. I guess the same if you're on your learners and they determine you were going over 70km/h the insurance company wouldn't pay out and you'd be in the shit again. So... I'm just trying to head to my full as quick as possible so that the situations I ride in are actually insurable

Just keep it legal and drive/ride as per your license - it makes things a lot easier. I know it is expensive to sit the tests but they are so easy that there is no way really that you can fail them.
I really can't see why people just don't do it...

Surely you just factor in the extra cost - like we have to with the increased rego costs.

hellokitty, you are right - it saves a whole lot of everything (except perhaps dosh initially) to keep things above board and legal. Most people who know they're breaking license conditions and flagging insurance obviously consider the risk of getting caught/having an accident, regardless of who is at fault, all part of the 'game'.

[notme]

If I cause an accident after 10pm I'm pretty much screwed if it's anything expensive. I guess the same if you're on your learners and they determine you were going over 70km/h the insurance company wouldn't pay out and you'd be in the shit again. So... I'm just trying to head to my full as quick as possible so that the situations I ride in are actually insurable

exactly - there are so many benefits to progressing to full, and no downsides, so why wouldn't you? That's what I fail to understand.

[superman]

Just keep it legal and drive/ride as per your license - it makes things a lot easier. I know it is expensive to sit the tests but they are so easy that there is no way really that you can fail them.
I really can't see why people just don't do it...

Finishing work at 9:30pm I drive after 10pm. Driving at 70km/h or less on open roads isn't a very nice thought either for another 4 months before I can get my restricted.

And not riding after 10pm for another 16-22months is even less of a nice thought with work. Guess I could always drive my car to work and use a lot more fuel, sit in my car depressed... drifting over to the wrong side of the lane wishing I was on my bike if it wasn't for some awesome laws.

Alas my woes.

Tbh I don't care about the insurance, I want to ride my bike and I would like to be insured. But riding the bike is a much higher priority so it wins, if something does happen I'll deal with it in court/pawn off my assets/put it on my student loan.

[superman]

exactly - there are so many benefits to progressing to full, and no downsides, so why wouldn't you? That's what I fail to understand.

I have no idea why people wouldn't do it as quick as possible. It lasts forever (till your old) and you can use it overseas. It's totally useful, so I can't work out why people don't either.

[hellokitty]

hellokitty, you are right - it saves a whole lot of everything (except perhaps dosh initially) to keep things above board and legal. Most people who know they're breaking license conditions and flagging insurance obviously consider the risk of getting caught/having an accident, regardless of who is at fault, all part of the 'game'.

I pay $26 per fortnight for full insurance. It is peanuts - 2 packs of smokes? A few beers?

I had a loser bf when I was 17 who had an accident - he wrote off his expensive car which was newly bought and under finance, and wrote off 2 other flash cars, drove through a fence and into a house demolishing the wall. The car hit a baby's cot in the house (baby was away that night, how lucky huh?) Basically about $80,000 (this was 20 years ago). The fool was drunk and uninsured. I wonder how many years it took him to pay off the various insurances companies that took him to court.

Tbh I don't care about the insurance, I want to ride my bike and I would like to be insured. But riding the bike is a much higher priority so it wins, if something does happen I'll deal with it in court/pawn off my assets/put it on my student loan.

Dude, you better hope that if you cause an accident, the person involved goes easy on you. If some uninsured person wrecked my bike, there would be a problem.

[Highlander]

Dude, you better hope that if you cause an accident, the person involved goes easy on you. If some uninsured person wrecked my bike, there would be a problem.

Way off the licencing topic, but we had an uninsured driver turn into us (he was doing a U turn and smacked into the side of our van as I decided that was preferable to me driving into on coming traffic). As expected he denied liability. Our insurance company led us through the small claim process and as soon as the referee determined it was his fault they refunded our excess and hit him for the full expense. Don't know if thye ever saw the cash, but as far as I'm concerned that was why I pay insurance. Our van was fixed at no more than the annual cost of the policy.

[hellokitty]

Way off the licencing topic, but we had an uninsured driver turn into us (he was doing a U turn and smacked into the side of our van as I decided that was preferable to me driving into on coming traffic). As expected he denied liability. Our insurance company led us through the small claim process and as soon as the referee determined it was his fault they refunded our excess and hit him for the full expense. Don't know if thye ever saw the cash, but as far as I'm concerned that was why I pay insurance. Our van was fixed at no more than the annual cost of the policy.

Yep!

And yes, off the original license topic - sorry I guess I got onto it because not following the rules set out by your license, you insurance would not be valid. Unless you are dumb enough not to be insured - then it doesn't matter anyway.

[superman]

Dude, you better hope that if you cause an accident, the person involved goes easy on you. If some uninsured person wrecked my bike, there would be a problem.

Would there be a problem? I mean yeah if someone uninsured wrecked my bike and then didn't have any money to pay me for it then I'd be bloody furious. But unless I create over $10000 of damage then I'll just sell my belongings and pay cash.

I don't feel like I'm living on the verge of causing mass amounts of damage, I mean I know shit happens. But on my bike as I'm sure most people do you focus your absolute self to the ride. I'm much more worried about someone crashing into me than crashing into someone. Plus being such a light, small vehicle the damage compared to crashing into someone with a car would be quite minor.

And if I crash into someone fast and die then I don't think I'll be worried about insurance, though I hope I don't somehow manage to put myself into that kind of situation.

[hellokitty]

Would there be a problem? I mean yeah if someone uninsured wrecked my bike and then didn't have any money to pay me for it then I'd be bloody furious. But unless I create over $10000 of damage then I'll just sell my belongings and pay cash.

I don't feel like I'm living on the verge of causing mass amounts of damage, I mean I know shit happens. But on my bike as I'm sure most people do you focus your absolute self to the ride. I'm much more worried about someone crashing into me than crashing into someone. Plus being such a light, small vehicle the damage compared to crashing into someone with a car would be quite minor.

Plus if I crash into someone fast and die then I don't think I'll be worried about insurance.

I wonder if you die owing money, does your family pay? Or does the debt get wiped as you are dead and hard luck to those you owe? Yes, even more off topic. (sorry)

Yeah I would be mad if someone crashed into me and couldn't pay for it or wasn't insured. It has happened before.
3rd party insurance is so cheap - why wouldn't everyone have it? My stepson on his restricted license pays $7 a fortnight for 3rd party insurance.

[superman]

I wonder if you die owing money, does your family pay? Or does the debt get wiped as you are dead and hard luck to those you owe? Yes, even more off topic. (sorry)

Yeah I would be mad if someone crashed into me and couldn't pay for it or wasn't insured. It has happened before.
3rd party insurance is so cheap - why wouldn't everyone have it? My stepson on his restricted license pays $7 a fortnight for 3rd party insurance.

I pay $1.73 per fortnight on my bikes 3rd party! Car is more like $6.50 per fortnight.

So yeah, I always thought 3rd party is definitely a must, just due to silly license conditions that sometimes when I ride I'm not covered. But then there's also the risk of being fined by police for breaching conditions etc.

For where I am the 25minute ride home at night usually only encounters about 3 oncoming cars, so risk feels low enough (hopefully not too deceptively) to make me feel it's ok. Plus I want to practice loads of riding in different environments to improve my riding skills.

[notme]

I wonder if you die owing money, does your family pay? Or does the debt get wiped as you are dead and hard luck to those you owe? Yes, even more off topic. (sorry)

Don't apologize - it's sort of on topic since what is being discussed in this thread is the proposed time limit on the beginner stages of a driver's license, and part of that discussion is questioning (as i did in my very first post) WHY people think that's such a big deal.

Some people think it's a big deal because of insurance and so on...so we are still on topic(ish).

[davereid]

I wonder if you die owing money, does your family pay? Or does the debt get wiped as you are dead and hard luck to those you owe?

If you have money or assets when you die, those to whom you owe money can make a claim to get paid. So the money you intended leaving to your children for example, may be used to pay your debts and your kids would get what is left.

If you have no money, they cannot force your relatives to pay, unless they have already agreed to - as a guarantor for example.

If you arent dead, but you owe a lot of $$ and you have no money and no assets, then you can declare bankruptcy or do a "No asset procedure.", which also means your creditors dont get paid.

3rd party insurance is so cheap - why wouldn't everyone have it? My stepson on his restricted license pays $7 a fortnight for 3rd party insurance.

Yes, and in New Zealand, your third party insurance actually gives you first party cover if the other driver is at fault.

So, for example, if you have third party cover on your motorcycle, and I knock you off, your insurer will pay for the repairs to your bike.

AA appear to be attempting to undermine this as I have seen an advert from AA insurance capping this at $4000. To the best of my knowledge other insurers do not do this. [EDIT AMI have capped at $3k...]

This is why I hate the idea of compulsory third party insurance. RIGHT NOW its cheap, and has lots of benefits. Once it is complusory, it will be expensive, and we will lose this first party cover.

[Highlander]

Would there be a problem? I mean yeah if someone uninsured wrecked my bike and then didn't have any money to pay me for it then I'd be bloody furious. But unless I create over $10000 of damage then I'll just sell my belongings and pay cash.

I don't feel like I'm living on the verge of causing mass amounts of damage, I mean I know shit happens. But on my bike as I'm sure most people do you focus your absolute self to the ride. I'm much more worried about someone crashing into me than crashing into someone. Plus being such a light, small vehicle the damage compared to crashing into someone with a car would be quite minor.

And if I crash into someone fast and die then I don't think I'll be worried about insurance, though I hope I don't somehow manage to put myself into that kind of situation.

Imagine this:
On a sunny afternoon you are riding along happy and with your only concern being that some moron coming the other way might enter your lane. As you round that left hander you discover that a car has cut it a bit close and had 2 wheels off the seal there by flicking loose stones on the seal. You panic and grab a handfull of front brake. As you go over the stones the physics works against you and you go down in a low side. Suddenly your concern moves from the cars in the opposite lane possibly entering your lane, to the fact that you have just entered theirs. The recent model 4x4 with "L" plates in the windows does a fantastic job of avoiding you and your bike as you slide betwen them and the crash barrier on their left. Unfortunately they do a somwhat less impressive job of keeping their Remuera Tractor on the seal and for the first time since leaving the showroom it goes off road. Through the afore mentioned crash barrier, the ditch your bike ended up in, and into the trees.

Not hard to guess who would be deemed responsible, nor is it hard to envisage $40- 50, 000 of damages. Especially if there was more than one car involved.

It wasn't quite like that scenario, and I wasn't on a bike, but there were 3 cars written off (2 of them less than 5 years old) and ours repaired. Apparently my fault.
Everyone walked away, the rest is only money. Still makes the couple of hundred dollars I give to AMI every year to insure the heap of crap car seam like money well spent.


For what it is worth I'm with the others here that see no problem with imposing a reasonable time restriction for moving through the licence process. Those who have posted here to the contrary appear to have in most cases, also admitted they do't comply and don't intend to comply with the restrictions placed on them by the graduated system any way. As with any law change it will only effect those who choose to comply with the rules, or get caught out not complying with them.

[superman]

Imagine this:
On a sunny afternoon you are riding along happy and with your only concern being that some moron coming the other way might enter your lane.

Sunny afternoons I am insured

[Mungatoke Mad]

Why exactly is this even news worth mentioning? It only affects those high risk riders who can't or won't move on up the ladder, which is fine by me - they are the group who shouldn't be riding anyway!

I learnt on numerous safety courses about identifying hazards & to me a graduate system such as we have that says I must not go over 70kph on the open road with 1 to 50 + ton projectiles travelling much faster than me Sucks this must be the only country in the world that rewards scratchie winners with licences to Kill most other country's give cash prizes to there scratchie winners.