Page 4385 - Week 14 - Thursday, 28 November 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Amendment Bill 2013 makes a number of amendments to the roadside alcohol and drug testing scheme, as established in the Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Act, to improve the effectiveness of the scheme and, in turn, improve the safety of all road users in the ACT.
The government has a proud record of reform designed to enhance the safety of all road users and, in particular, to address the road safety risk presented by drink and drug driving. This bill builds on that strong history. Some of the initiatives introduced in recent years include: restricting access to “work licences” for drink and drug drivers to first and low-range offenders; applying a zero blood alcohol concentration to learner and provisional drivers, public vehicle and heavy vehicle drivers; immediate licence suspension where a driver records a blood alcohol concentration of .05 or more over their limit; and requiring persons convicted or found guilty of a drink or drug driving offence to complete an approved alcohol and drug awareness course in order to regain their licence.
Earlier this year the government’s legislation mandating the use of vehicle alcohol ignition interlocks by drink-drivers was also passed into law. These provisions are directed at influencing the long-term behaviour of high risk drink-drivers, those who repeatedly drink and drive or record high range blood alcohol levels. Work is proceeding on the implementation of the interlock scheme in the first half of next year.
Comparisons of the ACT’s road safety statistics against national performance measures such as road fatalities per 100,000 head of population are favourable. However, there is still work to be done and the government will continue to strengthen its road safety efforts while there continue to be deaths and life-changing injuries on our roads.
An important part of our focus on improving road safety is targeting drivers who drive whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Despite widespread community awareness of the risks, such behaviour continues to be an issue. Advice from ACT Policing is that the primary contributing factor in serious and fatal crashes in the ACT is impaired driving, generally due to the effects of alcohol but sometimes in combination with the use of illicit drugs. ACT police have conducted over 100,000 random roadside breath tests from 1 January to 1 November this year, an extraordinary figure, with 1,066 drivers returning a positive result. Of the 1,066 positive results, 343 were repeat offenders. In 2012 ACT Policing conducted 2,100 roadside drug tests, resulting in 40 positive tests, a positive rate of approximately two per cent.
These statistics show that the incidence of alcohol or drug driving within the ACT is still too high. The bill seeks to improve the ability of ACT police to enforce the road transport law and reduce the incidence of alcohol or drug driving. It does this by making four important changes.
The first restricts the ability of a driver to rely on the defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact for an offence of driving under the influence of a prescribed drug
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video