| High-speed hoons and dangerous drivers will be immediately taken from the roads as part of tough new reforms introduced by the Andrews Labor Government.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services Lisa Neville introduced the Road Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 into Parliament today to crack down on those who put members of the community at risk on our roads.
The legislation will introduce immediate license suspension for excessive speeding offences and where someone has 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.
Under the proposed reforms, motorists caught travelling 45 km/hr or more over the speed limit or 145 km/hr or more in a 110 km/h zone will have their licence stripped as soon as they’re caught.
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.
This reform makes clear that people charged with committing serious offences while behind the wheel pose an unacceptable risk to public safety and reflect community expectation that they should lose their licence and be removed from the road as soon as they are charged.
The reform also responds to the brave advocacy of victims and their families who have been further harmed by subsequently seeing dangerous drivers behind the wheel in the lead up to the court case.
Those caught travelling 145 km/h or more or who use a vehicle to commit a serious offence will face an immediate 12-month ban, while those caught travelling up to 155 km/h in a 110 km/h zone will be taken off the road for six-months.
Dangerous driving is a major threat to community safety and these reforms reflects the expectations of Victorians that people charged with committing serious driving offences are removed from the roads.
The Bill will also ensure that a person who commits a ‘serious motor vehicle offence’, while under the influence of alcohol or alcohol and a drug at the time of offence will be subject to mandatory licence sanctions, including a mandatory alcohol interlock condition upon relicensing and requirement to complete a behaviour change program.
The new laws deliver on a key commitment in the Community Safety Statement 2019-20 to introduce legislation ensuring drivers charged with certain offences are immediately suspended from driving. |