New road safety laws have been introduced into Canberra to tackle excessive speeding, target hooning and deal with other dangerous driving mis-behaviour.
Announced by the Minister for Transport and City Services, Chris Steel, the new laws empower police to immediately disqualify licences to ban dangerous drivers off the Territory’s roads faster than at present.
“A driver’s licence could be immediately suspended for excessive speeds of greater than 45km/h, or for refusing an oral fluid sample for the purposes of drug testing, or for reckless or furious driving,” Mr Steel said.
“The legislation also means drivers repeatedly caught street racing could face an imprisonment for the first time as well as significantly increased fines of up to $16,000,” he said.
“These are practical laws that give police the ability to seize and impound vehicles of dangerous drivers to get them and their vehicle off the road.”
Mr Steel said that next year the Government will continue to review road transport penalties and bring forward further reforms to protect road users and deter dangerous driving behaviour.
Attorney General Shane Rattenbury said the new road safety laws would ensure that people participating in crimes by trespassing in motor vehicles would now be held to account, with a new offence created for being in a car when you shouldn’t be.
“We had received feedback from ACT Policing that there was a gap in the law, when they could prove a person had been present in someone else’s car, but couldn’t prove they had stolen it,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“This offence recognises that unauthorised entry to a motor vehicle is unacceptable and wrong, and there needs to be a legal response,” he said.
“Government is also working closely with key stakeholders to progress a more serious offence of unauthorised entry of a motor vehicle, which will encompass a higher level of culpability in its physical and fault elements, and will carry a higher maximum penalty.”
