Page 3667 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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drink driving. These have been included on the basis that they are significant offences involving serious dangerous driving behaviour and disregard for public safety. Where multiple offences are committed at once, these offences pose a much higher safety risk for the community and the penalty should reflect that.
Aligning with the increased penalties for high range speeding and hooning offences, the bill also expands the current immediate licence suspension framework to give police the power to apply an immediate licence suspension on the roadside when a police officer believes, on reasonable grounds, that an aggravated offence of furious, reckless and dangerous driving has been committed. A person’s licence will be subject to disqualification where convicted of this offence by a court. Police may also seize and impound a vehicle where they believe that this offence has occurred.
The bill also provides an immediate licence suspension where a person refuses to provide an oral fluid sample under section 22A of the Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977. Given the established high risk factor for drugs in road injuries and fatalities, there is a need to ensure that police have the appropriate powers to establish whether a person is under the influence of a drug or drugs when driving. While offences are currently in place for refusing to provide an oral fluid sample, this does not address the immediate public risk. At present, a person who refuses to undertake this testing can continue to drive in the ACT. It is therefore appropriate for a licence suspension to be in place where a driver refuses to undertake this testing. Allowing people who commit these extremely serious and dangerous driving offences to stay on our roads would unfairly endanger the lives of other innocent road users.
The bill contains a number of safeguards to limit the exercise of the power to immediately suspend a licence or seize and impound a vehicle, ensuring that this power cannot be exercised in an arbitrary manner. Critically, a person may apply to the Chief Police Officer for the release of a vehicle, under certain circumstances, under section 10G of the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999. They may also apply to the courts to order the release of the motor vehicle or for a stay of their licence suspension.
The National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 states that “while heavy vehicles crash less often than other vehicles, these crashes are more likely to result in a death or serious injury”. The severe trauma that heavy vehicles may inflict in a collision means that it is critical that we ensure that our road transport laws ensure that licensed heavy vehicle drivers are fit to drive.
Earlier this year, the ACT government responded to the recommendation made by Chief Coroner Walker in her inquest into the death of four-year-old Blake Andrew Corney, who was tragically killed by a truck driver found to have a background of medical concerns. We committed to consider and pursue legislative amendments that mandate health practitioners, or certain practitioners, to notify the Road Transport Authority of relevant medical conditions, where reporting would be in the interests of road safety and to protect the public.
Today I am introducing laws to support a mandatory scheme where health practitioners must inform the Road Transport Authority if they believe a patient has
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