Page 3827 - Week 12 - Thursday, 23 November 2006
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MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for the Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Housing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (10.44): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Amendment Bill 2006 (No 2) amends the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act of 1999. The bill amends the act by increasing the penalty for the offence committed when a driver of a vehicle which is involved in an accident causing death or injury fails to stop and render assistance. Section 16 of the act provides:
If the driver of a vehicle, or rider of an animal, is involved in a traffic accident on a road or road related area, and someone dies or is injured in the accident, the driver or rider must not knowingly fail to stop and give any assistance that is necessary and in his or her power to give.
The maximum penalty for this offence currently is 50 penalty units, imprisonment for six months, or both. Clearly, where a person who is driving a vehicle is involved in an accident resulting in death or injury there are moral reasons for expecting the person to stop and render any assistance the person is able to give at the accident scene.
There may be the opportunity for the person to render immediate assistance and/or to call emergency services to assist an injured person. Failure of a person involved in an accident to stop and assist should rightly be regarded as a serious matter from both a moral and a legal perspective.
A review of penalties for similar offences in other jurisdictions has disclosed that the ACT penalty for this offence is significantly out of step with penalties throughout the rest of Australia. It appears that all other jurisdictions have a maximum penalty of at least one years imprisonment for the equivalent offence. The penalties range up to 10 years imprisonment in New South Wales and Victoria.
The bill increases the maximum penalty for the ACT offence in section 16 from 50 penalty units and/or six months imprisonment to 200 penalty units and/or two years imprisonment. Two hundred penalty units is about $20,000. This will more appropriately reflect the seriousness of the offence and render the ACT penalty more consistent with the practice elsewhere.
It should be noted that the only change effected in relation to this offence at this stage is to change the maximum penalty which can be imposed. The substance of the offence and its interrelationship with any other ACT laws is not proposed to be changed.
The Assembly should be aware that, by increasing the maximum penalty to imprisonment for two years, the offence becomes an offence which may, if the defendant so chooses, be dealt with on indictment in the Supreme Court. The present offence is a summary offence only, as the imprisonment term which can be imposed does not exceed one year. Therefore the offence can currently only be dealt with by the Magistrates Court.
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