{"id":259206,"date":"2025-09-27T16:50:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259206\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T16:50:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:50:18","slug":"tom-saffiotis-legacy-inspires-focus-on-tough-new-driving-rules-in-bid-to-save-young-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259206\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Saffioti\u2019s legacy inspires focus on tough new driving rules in bid to save young lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young drivers face tougher new rules \u2014 including more supervised hours and a longer probation period \u2014 under new proposals from the State Government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With WA<\/a> in another long weekend double demerit period \u2014 and against the backdrop of a horror year so far of road fatalities \u2014 the Government will on Sunday begin a six-week consultation period on new proposals aimed at saving young lives.<\/p>\n

Among the proposals being considered is limiting phone use for all learner and provisional drivers to in-car systems.<\/p>\n

Learner drivers would need to do 75 hours of supervised training, up from the current 50, and they would be on their P-plates for three years, not two.<\/p>\n

Adults would also need to play a more responsible role when supervising young drivers, and be completely alcohol-free while in the passenger seat. Currently they can be under the .05 legal limit.<\/p>\n

The move comes as the Government on Sunday also launches a new advertising campaign featuring the mother and best friend of 15-year-old Tom Saffioti, who was tragically killed in 2021 when the car in which he was a passenger slammed into a tree.<\/p>\n

The campaign, which is branded as \u2018Tom\u2019s Story\u2019, asked young drivers to \u201cdrive like your mate\u2019s life depend on it, because it does\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TomCamera IconTom Saffioti. Credit: supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThe campaign is deeply personal to me,\u201d Tom\u2019s mother, Samantha Saffioti, told The Sunday Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about sharing Tom\u2019s story so that his life and his loss can help protect others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it makes young people stop and think about the choices they make when they\u2019re in a car, whether it\u2019s who they get in with, how many people they take, or how safely they drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Tom\u2019s story can spark even one young person to make a safer choice, then that\u2019s a powerful legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October last year, the Cook Government unveiled Tom\u2019s Law \u2014 named in honour of Samantha\u2019s son \u2014 making major changes to young-driver rules.<\/p>\n

They included P-platers being banned from carrying more than one passenger for the first six months.<\/p>\n

Now the Government wants to go further \u2014 proposing more restrictions, including mobile phone restrictions for learners and P-Platers while driving.<\/p>\n

\"SamanthaCamera IconSamantha Saffioti. Credit: Michael Wilson\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

In WA all drivers, including learners and provisional licence holders, are allowed to use a phone \u2018hands-free\u2019.<\/p>\n

This means that, provided the phone is secured in a mounting attached to the vehicle, the driver can make or receive a voice call while driving or use a mobile phone for GPS or listening to audio.<\/p>\n

It is illegal for a driver to touch or hold their phone for any other purpose \u2014 including texting.<\/p>\n

Under proposed changes, learners and all provisional drivers would be prohibited from making or answering phone calls hands-free, even if the device is mounted. Receiving or making calls would need to be done via an in-car system.<\/p>\n

Novice drivers would be allowed to use their phone for navigation and playing audio, provided it is set up before the journey and secured in a mount.<\/p>\n

In other proposed changes, the provisional driver period would be extended from two years, to three, and the number of supervised driving hours or log book hours would be increased from 50 hours to 75 hours.<\/p>\n

And any adult supervising a learner driver would, under proposed changes, need to be completely alcohol free \u2014 instead of the current .05 blood alcohol content restriction for supervisor drivers, including professional driving instructions.<\/p>\n

\"ACamera IconA new road safety campaign, which is branded as \u2018Tom\u2019s Story\u2019, asked young drivers to \u2018drive like your mate\u2019s life depend on it, because it does\u2019. Credit: supplied<\/p>\n

In 2024, 133 people lost their lives on WA roads. So far this year, 138 have died.<\/p>\n

Police are warning anyone travelling this weekend that officers will be in force amid the deadliest road toll in almost two decades.<\/p>\n

The community, along with the learner driver industry and road safety stakeholders, are invited to participate in the online consultation using the Department of Transport and Major Infrastructure\u2019s My Say Transport<\/a> platform until November 9.<\/p>\n

Read the full story at The West Australian.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young drivers face tougher new rules \u2014 including more supervised hours and a longer probation period \u2014 under…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":259207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50,8632],"class_list":{"0":"post-259206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-wa-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115277295103599665","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}