New laws that will see dangerous drivers immediately stripped of their licences when caught by Police have been passed by the Parliament.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Lisa Neville said the new laws introduced immediate licence suspension for excessive speeding offences and where someone had been charged with using a motor vehicle as a weapon to commission a serious offence.
“Currently, immediate licence suspension is applied to drivers caught with drugs or excessive alcohol in their system,” Ms Neville said.
“Under the new laws, motorists caught travelling 45 km/h or more over the speed limit or 145 km/h or more in a 110 km/h zone will have their licence stripped as soon as they’re caught,” she said.
“The same will apply to anyone charged with murder, attempted murder, gross violence offences and causing serious injury offences if they used a motor vehicle to commission the offence and it resulted in death or injury.”
Ms Neville said the new laws made it clear that people charged with committing serious offences while behind the wheel posed an unacceptable risk to public safety.
She said the laws were also a response to the advocacy of victims and their families that were further harmed by seeing dangerous drivers behind the wheel in the lead up to court cases.
