Page 5237 - Week 12 - Thursday, 28 October 2010
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holder who records a BAC of .1 or higher will not be able to apply for a restricted licence.
Based on recent AFP data showing that around half of persons charged with drink driving have a BAC of .1 or more, this will mean that around half those caught drink driving will not be eligible to apply for a restricted licence, based on their BAC reading alone. Some others with a lower BAC, but who are also repeat offenders, will also not be eligible to apply for a restricted licence. The remainder who are eligible to apply will need to demonstrate to the court the exceptional circumstances justifying the grant of the licence. Based on current data, it could be expected that the number of restricted licences being granted would be at least halved.
Another new measure effected by this bill, to protect other road users and to reinforce that a consequence of drink driving is loss of the privilege of holding a driver licence, is immediate licence suspension by police for high-range offenders. Where a driver exceeds the BAC applicable to that person by .05 or more, police will be required to immediately suspend the person’s licence. Similar provisions have been in place in other jurisdictions for some years.
The bill provides for a person whose licence is suspended by police to apply to the Magistrates Court for a stay of the suspension and the court may stay the suspension if satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances warranting a stay. The court’s primary consideration in deciding whether to stay the suspension will be the risk to the safety of road users.
Even where persons charged with drink driving successfully pursue a stay of the suspension in order to get their licence restored before their court appearance, they will, nonetheless, serve a minimum period of licence disqualification. This is because the level of their BAC reading will make them ineligible, under the new laws, to apply for a restricted licence during the disqualification period.
The bill provides that, where a person serves a period of immediate licence suspension, the licence disqualification period imposed by the court, on conviction, will be reduced by the period of licence suspension already served.
Even where a person seeks a stay of an immediate licence suspension and succeeds, the process will take a period of time. So one effect of this new provision will be that for high-range offenders there will be an immediate consequence of being caught drink driving—a period of time off the road.
Both the new immediate licence suspension provisions and the tougher rules on eligibility to apply for a restricted licence treat the threshold for high-range offending for a full licence holder as .1. I can advise the Assembly that there was some consideration in finalising the bill as to whether the high-range threshold should be .15, as it is in some other jurisdictions. However, there was a view strongly expressed by road safety roundtable participants that, at .1, a person is double the legal limit and it should not be necessary to reach triple the limit to be regarded as a high-range offender. In addition, there is evidence which clearly demonstrates that the degree of crash risk, including the likelihood that these crashes result in a fatality,
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