Extract from ABC Capricornia
In short:
Road rage incidents against learner drivers are on the rise, according to police and driving experts who say it is making students more anxious.
Police say they will come down hard on any driver caught tailgating or abusing learners.
What's next?
Front and rear dash cams are leading the fight against the growing road rage incidents.
Leyland Barnett has been a driving instructor for more than two decades and has seen road rage at its worst.
"I've seen people drive over footpaths to go around a learner driver," Mr Barnett said.
"I've seen people drive through stop signs and drive through red lights to get around the learner car."
But he said the incidences of drivers targeting "L-platers" had increased dramatically.
Police and road safety experts agree.
"It's certainly there nearly every day, you see someone do something silly," Queensland Road Policing Unit's Senior Sergeant Ewan Findlater said.
In one recent incident, two vehicles followed one of Mr Barnett's learn-to-drive cars across suburbs in Rockhampton in central Queensland for several kilometres.
They flash lights, tailgate, and yell abuse before swerving in front of the learner driver.
"The bad driving and dangerous driving that is happening is absolutely incredible and this dangerous behaviour is putting lives at risk," Mr Barnett said.
In another incident, an impatient motorist overtook Mr Barnett and his learner driver before narrowly avoiding an oncoming vehicle.
"It's not only putting learner drivers at risk, it's actually putting other motorists who are doing the right thing on the roads at risk as well," he said.
"Every near miss leads closer to a fatality but if we're driving cautiously and driving to the conditions there's no reason why we should be seeing crashes or people getting killed on our roads."
'We will take action'
In Queensland, teenagers can obtain a learner's licence at 16.
They then must hold the licence for a year and log a minimum of 100 driving hours before they can go for their provisional licence.
Police say they will come down hard on any driver caught tailgating or abusing learners.
"As part of our duty we're always looking at driver behaviour and certainly if we identify drivers doing things that are an offence then we will take enforcement action," Senior Sergeant Findlater said.
"Depending on what the behaviour and what offence has been breached then we take the various levels of enforcement, be it an enforcement ticket, it could be a notice to appear for court or in extreme circumstances can be an arrest."
Senior Sergeant Findlater said driver "impatience and frustration" was getting worse in Australia with road policing units across the country determined to curb the problem.
"Everything you do on the road, every decision you make, or every decision you don't make can have a potential effect on every other road user," he said.
"That's not just drivers. That can be cyclists, pedestrians, scooter riders, motorcyclists, the whole lot.
"So, if you've got someone who, due to frustration or anger, is doing something that is dangerous, the impact can be felt by everyone in that area at that time."
Students left traumatised
The attacks are making learner drivers more anxious behind the wheel, according to road safety experts and driving instructors.
"I've had students in the past that have been involved in traumatic situations and that affects their ability to get a licence," Mr Barnett said.
"I know one student who was traumatised that badly that I don't think she'll ever get a licence."
Joel Tucker from motoring group RACQ said the treatment dished out to learner drivers on the roads was becoming all too common.
"Across the board, RACQ's annual road safety survey has found that Queenslanders, in general, believe that aggressive driver behaviour has increased in the past 12 months," he said.
"Eighty-five per cent of people agree with that, so it is a major problem."
The survey found congestion on roads was one of the main reasons behind aggressive behaviour.
"It's important to remember too that we were all learners once," Mr Tucker said.
"We don't tolerate bullying in the workspace or in our schools so we shouldn't tolerate aggressive behaviour towards other people on the roads."
Dash cams are also leading the fight against the growing number of road rage incidents.
"Dash cams are a help and we've got dash cams fitted in all of our cars," Mr Barnett said.
"That's a start, but we need police to have the necessary resources to be able to get on top of this problem that's developing rather rapidly.
"It's an issue that is getting worse and can you imagine what is going to happen in 12 months' time if we don't have a crackdown on this driving."
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