The other day, a friend got her driver's licence, and was telling me about some of the questions in the theory test you must sit in order to get a learner licence. All questions are multichoice, and you must get 32 out of 35 correct. One of the questions was approximately as follows (this is a partial question):

When you have driven through surface water, to dry the brakes do you...
a) Swerve from side to side for 1km
b) Drive with the handbrake on for 5km
or
c) Gently and carefully pump the brakes

Another question involved passing a person riding a horse on the side of the road, and did you...
a) Sound your horn
b) Turn on your lights
c) Speed up
or
d) Carefully slow down and give them as much room as possible

I don't know what everybody else thinks, but with these questions as a guide to how difficult it is to get a licence, it's no wonder that so many people who cannot drive properly are on our roads. You don't have to be that intelligent to pass the test so long as you carefully read the questions. This means that the average IQ of drivers is lower than it used to be (as three years ago, passing 4 out of 5 random oral questions was also part of the learner licence criteria). You have to be pretty stupid in New Zealand to drink heavily and drive, as we have a pretty high drink/drive fatality rate. So, if there are more less intelligent people behind the wheel of NZ cars, then it's no wonder road fatalities increase every year.

Some people blame this increase in on the roads on the lower drinking age (18, brought down from 20).
I say it's the theory test as much as the drinking age.
PROOF: You can get your licence at 15, and the theory test without orals came in three years ago. This makes the first batch of people who took the new test at 18 years of age or older. They can now drink. Most accidents on the road are by younger people (teens and 20s). Lately there have been more accidents than usual. Why is this happening? I can't give a reason for that, but between alcohol and the easy licence test, I'm pretty sure that an explanation could be found...