A move to require tourists to display T-plates while driving in Tasmania could make them theft targets, a Launceston driving instructor has warned.
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Driving Ambitions instructor Robert Kolkert said labels identifying tourists on cars could attract thieves.
“There could be quite a few things that could be a downside to it,” he said.
Police Minister Rene Hidding has ruled out introducing the measure, but a Queensland driving instructor has called for national laws to enforce T-plates to lower the road toll.
Road Safety Advisory Council chairman Jim Cox said rental car companies had started pulling their rental car signatories off vehicles to avoid thefts.
“So the moment you stick a T plate on, you are indicating that they could have bags, they could have cameras, they’re mobile."
Mr Kolkert said the upside to the policy could be to make local drivers more patient with motoring tourists.
Road safety videos for migrants could be promoted to tourists, he said.
Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin said T-plates would be a simplistic solution to a complex challenge.
“It would very risky for Tasmania to pursue such an idea alone. Our touring market - tourists who drive the state - are the bread and butter of the industry and we need to tread very carefully with any proposal that even had the slightest potential to impact that market,” he said.
“If it was all tourists, I think our domestic visitors from interstate would find it a bit offensive and logistically difficult to enforce. Would expat Tasmanians be expected to display the plates when coming home to visit parents and relatives?
“I'm not sure foreign visitors would understand and appreciate why they would need to display such signs in Tasmania but not other states.”
Tourism Northern Tasmania chief executive Chris Griffin said T-plates would be “an ineffective means to improve road safety.”
Road safety for both visitors and locals would be best improved through a combination of increasing promotion of the existing road safety program, featuring Bobby the Bear, and encouraging service businesses to provide advice regarding local road conditions, he said.
Of the 1,249 crashes in Tasmania between 2010 and 2014, 115 involved tourists from interstate and 16 involved international tourists.