Page 3665 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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compliance activities. In the ACT’s Road Safety Action Plan 2020-2023 the ACT government committed to a review of the ACT’s road transport penalties framework, including a review of speeding offences and their associated penalties to ensure that they are operating as a sufficient and effective deterrent.
That review began earlier this year, to ensure that the penalties are commensurate with the road safety risk associated with the unsafe behaviour and to support behavioural change, including the appropriate application of infringement notice penalties, demerit points, court fines, licence suspensions and disqualifications, education programs and imprisonment. This penalties review will result in significant reforms in road transport legislation. Today I am pleased to present the first tranche of these reforms through the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill, which addresses dangerous driving behaviour on ACT roads.
The purpose of this bill is to amend road transport legislation to improve road safety by providing enhanced penalties to deter dangerous driving behaviours and strengthen the reporting and monitoring of driver licence holders’ fitness to drive. This bill has a focus on making our roads safer. The amendments in the bill are practical. They will increase ACT Policing’s ability to act immediately to stop dangerous drivers and protect the lives of other road users in the ACT. The bill also increases and introduces new penalties for a range of offences to ensure that the sanctions for dangerous driving behaviours are appropriate and proportionate, particularly for repeat offenders.
Ensuring that ACT police have appropriate penalties and enforcement tools is essential for providing a safe road environment for the community. As the public heard during the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety inquiry into dangerous driving, dangerous driving has tragic outcomes in the community. In their evidence to the inquiry, a number of road safety advocates called for stronger penalties to be applied to this behaviour. This bill addresses many of these proposals and follows ongoing engagement with police and other stakeholders about how to practically address dangerous behaviour on our roads.
This bill enhances the penalty framework in the road transport legislation to target risky behaviour in four main areas. These are high-range speeding; street racing, attempts on speed records, speed trials and other hooning behaviours; furious, reckless, and dangerous driving; and drug driving. It seeks to address these behaviours by strengthening police and court sanctions. It does this by expanding the list of serious road transport offences which are subject to immediate licence suspension and disqualification, vehicle seizure and impoundment, and increased penalties.
High-range speeding unfortunately continues to be prevalent on ACT roads. From 2017-18 to 2021-22 a total of 455 drivers were charged with speeding in excess of 45 kilometres per hour by ACT Policing—an average of 91 per year. In 2021-22, 318 drivers were issued a traffic infringement notice by Access Canberra for speeding in excess of 45 kilometres per hour. This behaviour is not acceptable. The risks of speeding to road users are well established in research and crash data, and the community is well aware of the dangers of this behaviour.
Speed is a factor in most traffic crashes and is over-represented in repeat road transport law offences. Despite ongoing enforcement and campaign efforts on the
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