Page 5235 - Week 12 - Thursday, 28 October 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Special drivers include learners, provisional, public vehicle and heavy vehicle drivers as well as persons who hold a restricted licence. The current ACT limit for special drivers is .02 grams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The bill will make the BAC for this group of drivers zero, as is the case in all other Australian jurisdictions, except Western Australia. A zero BAC for this class of drivers is appropriate given the novice driver status of learner and provisional drivers, the special responsibilities of drivers of public and heavy vehicles and the need to send a message to persons on a restricted licence—who have already committed a drink-driving offence—that alcohol and driving do not mix. For younger and inexperienced drivers, it also avoids the uncertainty created by the current .02 limit about whether it is possible to drink a small amount of alcohol and not have their driving impaired. There is evidence to suggest that novice drivers find it difficult to effectively monitor their alcohol consumption to stay below .02. This change will send the simple message to this group of drivers—drink or drive.
A concern sometimes raised about the zero BAC limit for certain drivers, which was raised by some respondents to the discussion paper, is whether they may commit an offence as a result of “innocently” consumed alcohol such as communion wine, cough mixture or foods containing alcohol. I am advised that there is evidence showing that, in practice, this is unlikely to be a real problem because cough mixtures or foods prepared with alcohol when consumed in normal quantities are unlikely to influence BAC levels to an extent which would seriously interfere with the measurement of a driver’s BAC. Nonetheless, given that New South Wales took the precautionary measure of including a limited defence in its legislation for drivers who register a BAC between zero and .02, if the driver can prove that their reading was the result of the innocent consumption of alcohol—for example, for religious observance or medicine—a similar defence provision has been included in this bill.
In reviewing the BAC for special drivers, which include learner drivers, it was recognised that there were no special BAC requirements for instructors or supervisors of a learner. This means that, presently, a person can legally drink and be instructing a learner driver. This raises a concern, on two counts. One is that it is inconsistent with the message to young or inexperienced drivers, to permit a person instructing or supervising them to drink and then provide driving instruction. The second is that instructors or supervisors of novice drivers need, in teaching another person to drive, to exercise a degree of skill and concentration, above and beyond what is required when they are physically in charge of the vehicle themselves. For these reasons, the bill extends the zero BAC to persons instructing or supervising learner drivers, including heavy vehicle learners.
I understand that there is no evidence to suggest that there has been an issue with professional driving instructors instructing students after having consumed alcohol. The scenario these amendments are designed to avoid is more likely to arise where a parent has had a couple of drinks at a family or a social function and then allows the learner driver to drive home. While the use of a designated driver is certainly to be encouraged, it is not appropriate for the designated driver to be a learner driver, under the supervision of a person who has had a few drinks.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video