Scarcely a day went by when one of this state’s communities was not forced to confront the devastating impact of road trauma.

That fatalities would soar 15.5 per cent from 252 in 2015 to 291 in 2016, despite an abundance of road safety education, was a bitter blow.

The sharp increase also came in a year in which the Transport Accident Commission launched its Towards Zero campaign. 

As noble as the Towards Zero safety message is, the tragic reality is that for as long as humans get behind the wheel, fatalities are inevitable.

What we, as a state, must do is try to reduce the risk to road users without impinging on their ability to live their lives.

So it is no wonder that the Victorian Minister for Roads and Roads Safety, Luke Donnellan, gave such short shrift to a proposal to lower the probationary licence age to 17 years last week.

The recommendation was put forward by a bipartisan parliamentary committee that looked closely at the issue of bringing Victoria into line with other states.

The committee recommended that while there were strong opinions from experts and stakeholders on both sides of the divide, the change should be made.

Its key argument in favour of the move was that teenagers in rural and regional areas were susceptible to “transport disadvantage” due to the lack of public transport options, often missing out on employment or education opportunities.

Western Victoria MP James Purcell was livid with the minister’s decision, saying that “our 17-year-olds are just as responsible as every other 17-year-old” in the country. 

The Standard understands the advantages with bringing Victoria into line with all other states and territories.

However, statistics indicate that young drivers, aged 17 to 25 years, are over-represented in crash data across Australia.

The committee proposed changing the peer passenger restriction from one passenger to no passengers during the P1 phase, and restricting P1 drivers from driving between 10pm and 5am unless for employment, study or other authorised purposes.

These measures make sense, but such an important change must not be rushed.

There is no harm taking even more time to work out how best to lower the licence age without putting our youth at undue risk.