NSW's youngest and most at-risk drivers are continuing to drive vehicles older than 10 years, which tests have shown may quadruple their chances of being killed or seriously injured in a crash.
Nearly 80 per cent of young drivers under 20 who died and 71 per cent of those who seriously injured in car crashes on the state's roads in the past five years were driving cars older than 10 years, an expert from the NSW Centre for Road Safety told a seminar of safety experts last week.
![Erin Vassallo with the Fatality Free Friday letterboxes, each of which represents a death on NSW roads in 2016. Ms ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170818002548im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/d/v/n/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxtqty.png/1502534172790.jpg)
Around 45 per cent of those who died were driving vehicles at least 15 years old. P1 drivers – the first stage of NSW provisional drivers licensing system – represent 3 per cent of the 6 million drivers on NSW roads, but more than 20 per cent of all fatalities.
"You can clearly see there is a strong association with younger drivers with a higher proportion of fatalities coming from older vehicles," senior researcher Andrew Graham told a road safety seminar last week.
![Colleen Vassallo with a picture of her late son Philip who died in a car accident while driving an old car.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170818002548im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/u/5/x/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxtqty.png/1502534172790.jpg)
"That's a reflection of putting the worst risk taking, the worst experienced drivers in the worst performing crash vehicles," he told a young driver seminar. It was organised by the NSW Chapter of the Australasian College of Road Safety and the Transport and Road Safety (TARS) research centre at the University of NSW.
Successive studies had shown that young drivers in older cars had three times the rate of the risk of being hospitalised or killed, leading safety researcher Rebecca Ivers said.
Yet the rate of young people driving old and unsafe vehicles, very often the cheapest and the only ones they could afford, hadn't changed.
"We need to have a much stronger education campaign for parents and young people about the safety of the cars," said Professor Ivers, the director of the injury division of the George Institute for Global Health.
![The blue Datsun that Philip loved to drive was more than 20 years old.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170818002548im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/u/5/5/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxtqty.png/1502534172790.jpg)
"[The parent] shouldn't be driving a BMW with safety features and putting [the young driver] into a $5000 15-year-old Corolla. It should be the other way around," she said.
She urged parents not to buy young drivers a car of their own. Those who had their own vehicles were at a greater risk of a crash than those who shared the family car, which was often a larger, newer and safer vehicle. Those who shared were more likely to discuss with their parents where, when and what route they were taking, which reduced their risks.
![Young and old people are driving older vehicles, without many life saving safety features.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170818002548im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/u/5/5/7/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gxtqty.png/1502534172790.jpg)
Philip Vassallo, 17, was killed in 2014 when his 1980s blue Datsun was slammed at high speed by another car when we was out with a group of friends.
Known as the "kid in the blue Datto", his parents Joe and Colleen Vassallo started a road safety group Blue Datto to educate teens. Mr and Mrs Vassallo believe nothing would have saved Philip given the speed at which his car was hit.
![Young drivers in cars older than 15 years represent 45 per cent of those who were killed in the five years to 2016, ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170818002548im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/u/5/5/j/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gxtqty.png/1502534172790.jpg)
"We do recommend young drivers buy a car with the highest ANCAP rating they can afford, or use their parents' car. Although that's sometimes not practical or possible," Mr Vassallo said.
"But we believe targeting human behaviour is the best way to save lives. At the end of the day we need to focus on teaching young drivers to make the safest possible decisions. That includes using a safe car, making smart decisions as a driver and being a responsible passenger."
Parents often bought young drivers small cars, yet young drivers in heavier cars were better protected – and had about 40 per cent fewer deaths or serious injuries – than those in smaller vehicles, according to a study in the safety journal Injury Prevention.
Electronic stability control (ESC) – only available in newer vehicles – halved the risk of having a single-vehicle crash risk and prevented loss of control which was more common among young drivers.
The latest NSW research was consistent with national data showing drivers of older cars, made before 2000, were four times more likely to die than those in a new car, said James Goodwin, the chief executive of the independent car safety ratings group ANCAP.
Vehicles older than 15 years of age accounted for about a third of all crashes by drivers of all age groups.
Contrary to what many families thought, it was possible to find a car for less than $10,000 with five star ratings.
Mr Goodwin recommended that parents should spend a bit more to buy the safest vehicle for their new driver with both ESC and side air bags if possible.
"Everyone says I am good driver, and I won't need these features. But ESC may reduce the speed, or help regain control in the wet or on the ice, or if a kangaroo jumps out on the road," he said
ANCAP's recommended picks of safe cars suitable for young drivers
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170818002548im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/u/8/e/t/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1502422101707.png)