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FEATURE-Rome to tame teenage scooter drivers

By Claudia Parsons

ROME, June 22 (Reuters) - Mariolina Moioli dreams of bringing civilisation to Italy's chaotic streets.

That means the end of an era for carefree 14-year-olds who for generations have been allowed to drive a scooter without so much as a permit or a driving lesson.

The sight of adolescents buzzing around on their scooters is as quintessentially Italian as pizza and pasta -- as are the daily reports of teenagers killed after speeding along the Tiber or running a red light in Rome's hectic traffic.

"We're not going to save the world, but it's something," said Moioli, explaining a plan to teach "good behaviour" on the roads as part of the preparation for the introduction of a "mini-licence" for under-18s wanting to drive scooters.

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers now face the prospect of having to park their beloved Vespas from July 1 or pay a fine of more than 500 euros ($604) if they are caught without the mini-licence.

Currently anybody is allowed to drive a scooter with an engine of 50 cc from the age of 14 without a licence.

"It's about behaviour and values, about respect for life, how to behave with others, basically how to drive in a civilised way," said Moioli, director general of the Education Ministry.

But 17-year-old Giovanni De Angelis and many fellow teenagers are crying foul.

"It ridiculous. For more powerful motorbikes maybe it makes sense but not for the smaller ones. And maybe for 14-year-olds -- if they're so small they can't even reach the handle bars."

De Angelis will not be taking the exam himself, he added with a shrug, because his scooter has been stolen.

"It's been chaos, at least they should give a bit more time," he said.

Motor organisations also complain that there has been insufficient time to complete the courses and the tests.

"It's not that we're against the mini-licence but you have to give people the time to attend the free courses in schools," said Claudio de Viti of the National Association of Bicycles, Motorcycles and Accessories (ANCMA) representing manufacturers.

"If you force them to go to driving schools and pay then it's just another barrier to buying a scooter," he said, adding that scooter sales had fallen 30 percent in the year to May because of uncertainty about the new mini-licence.

RACE TO PASS EXAM

Moioli said around 700,000 teenagers had registered for the courses in schools but not all schools offered the classes or tests and 20-25 percent of those who took the test had failed.

De Viti said only around 250,000 teenagers would have obtained their mini-licence by the deadline.

"The risk is there will be a lot of people driving illegally which is worrying not just because of the fines but also because their insurance will not be valid. If somebody has an accident the insurance won't cover it," he said.

Deaths in road accidents in Italy have halved in the last three decades to around 12 in every 100,000 people a year but the rate of fatalities in the 15-29 age group has barely changed.

Moioli said the problem was that young people often had a sense of invincibility. "They seem to believe that they can deal with the risks, that it'll happen to others but it won't happen to them, and this leads to a lot of accidents," she said.

She might not be amused by 16-year-old Andrea De Sanctis, who confesses he had an accident last year on his scooter involving a tree. "It wasn't my fault. It was the tree that was going the wrong way down a one-way street."

Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi has said he opposes any change in the July 1 deadline. "The regulation will come into force as foreseen on July 1. And it will be the parents who will thank me for this decision," he said.

Scooter maker Piaggio, worried about the impact on sales, has offered to pay the fees at private driving schools for clients under 18 who buy a new scooter during the summer months when schools are closed.

Piaggio said 14- to 17-year-olds were expected to buy around 35,000 50 cc scooters from May to July and already around 4,000 had registered to take advantage of the offer of free lessons.

From July 2005 adults too will have to obtain a mini-licence to drive 50 cc scooters unless they already have a licence to drive a motorcycle or car.

The change will close a gap in the law allowing adults, and previously also teenagers, without a licence to drive so-called "minicars" -- tiny, light-weight four-wheel vehicles with 50 cc engines that are classed as scooters.

Long popular with the elderly, the mini-cars have been popping up all over Rome driven by teenagers or adults who have lost their licence because of speeding or other infractions.

Of around 10,000 minicars sold last year in Italy, and a total of 30,000 on the roads, more than 60 percent were owned by pensioners, De Viti said, and only 5-10 percent by under 18s.

"It's a particularly Roman phenomenon," he said. "You get some parents who are willing to spend 10,000 euros because they think it's safer for their children."