Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Amendment Act 1997 (TAS)

Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Amendment Act 1997

An Act to amend the Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1970

[Royal Assent 22 December 1997]

Be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor of Tasmania, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, in Parliament assembled, as follows:

1Short titleThis Act may be cited as the Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Amendment Act 1997 . 2Commencement (1)  This section and sections 1 , 3 and 6(1) are taken to have commenced on 12 December 1991. (2)  Except as provided in subsection (1), this Act commences on a day to be proclaimed. 3Principal ActIn this Act, the Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1970 is referred to as the Principal Act. 4Section 2 amended (Interpretation) Section 2 of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by inserting in subsection (2) "or regulations made under that Act" after " Traffic Act 1925 "; (b) by omitting from subsection (2A)(c) "7·5 tonnes." and substituting "7.5 tonnes; and"; (c) by inserting in subsection (2A) after paragraph (c) the following paragraph: (d) a vehicle in respect of which a perpetual taxi licence, or a temporary taxi licence, under the Taxi Industry Act 1995 is in force. (d) by inserting after subsection (4) the following subsections: (5)  For the purposes of subsection (4) , if the holder of a learner’s licence has charge of a vehicle or motor vehicle, both that holder and the holder of a driver’s licence who is or was seated in or on that vehicle or motor vehicle next to him or her have charge of that vehicle or motor vehicle. (6)  Subsection (5) does not apply if the holder of the driver’s licence shows that – (a) he or she did not consent to being in the vehicle or motor vehicle while the holder of the learner’s permit had charge of the vehicle or motor vehicle; or (b) he or she did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to have known, that the person having charge of the vehicle or motor vehicle was the holder of the learner’s permit. 5Section 4 substituted Section 4 of the Principal Act is repealed and the following section is substituted: 4Driving while under the influence of alcohol, drugs, &c., prohibited A person who drives a vehicle while under the influence of one or more of the following things to the extent that he or she is incapable of having proper control of the vehicle is guilty of an offence: (a) intoxicating liquor; (b) a drug. 6Section 6 amended (Driving with excessive concentration of blood alcohol) (1)  Section 6 of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by inserting "or (4)" in subsection (2) after "subsection (3)"; (b) by omitting "this section; or" from subsection (3)(c) and substituting "this section."; (c) by omitting paragraph (d) from subsection (3); (d) by omitting subsection (4) and substituting the following subsections: (4)  Subsection (2) applies to a person if – (a) the person has been convicted within any 10 year period of 3 or more offences under this Act arising from at least 3 separate incidents; and (b) at least one of those offences was committed on or after 12 December 1991; and (c) either – (i) less than 10 years has passed since the last of those convictions was recorded; or (ii) 10 or more years have passed since the last of those convictions was recorded and the person has not provided to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles the certificate of a registered medical practitioner or a prescribed person certifying that the person is not alcohol-dependent. (5)  If any proceedings for a prescribed offence have been commenced but not completed before the assent date, those proceedings may be continued and subsections (2) and (3)(d) , as in force immediately before the assent date, continue to apply for that purpose. (6)  Nothing in this section affects a conviction for a prescribed offence. (7)  In this section – assent date means the day on which the Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Amendment Act 1997 received the Royal Assent; prescribed offence means an offence under subsection (2) in respect of a person of a class referred to in subsection (3)(d) as in force immediately before the assent date. (2)  Section 6 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting in subsection (3) after paragraph (c) the following paragraph: (d) who is driving under the authority of a restricted licence, within the meaning of section 36 of the Traffic Act 1925 , granted in respect of a disqualification under this Act from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence. 7Section 13B amended (Analysis of blood and urine samples by approved analyst) Section 13B of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by omitting subsection (2) and substituting the following subsection: (2)  Where under subsection (1) a part of the sample of the blood or urine taken from a person has been analysed by an approved analyst, that analyst must cause a copy of the report of the analysis, within 21 days after the completion of the report – (a) to be served on that person; and (b) if the analysis was made on the request by or on behalf of that person and a legal practitioner referred to in subsection (1) , to be provided to the person specified by the legal practitioner in the request; and (c) if such a request was not made, to be provided to a prescribed police officer. (b) by inserting after subsection (3) the following subsection: (4)  For the purposes of subsection (2)  – (a) a copy of a report required to be served on the person referred to in subsection (2)(a) must be served by sending it by registered post to that person at the person’s residential or postal address or address of business or employment as last known to the approved analyst; and (b) a copy of the report is taken to have been served when it is posted by registered post; and (c) a copy of the report required to be provided under subsection (2) may be provided by any means or in any manner. 8Section 14 amended (Offences under Division 2) Section 14 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting after subsection (2) the following subsection: (2AA)  For the purposes of subsection (2) , the fact that a person has a medical or physical condition is not a reasonable excuse for failing or refusing to submit to a breath analysis unless – (a) that medical or physical condition is, or that person has a further medical or physical condition that is, a reasonable excuse for not having a sample of blood taken; or (b) that person elected instead to the taking of a sample of blood for analysis and made himself or herself available so as to facilitate the taking of the sample within 3 hours after the relevant time but the sample was not taken within that 3 hour period. 9Section 15 amended (Identification of offenders) Section 15 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting after subsection (2) the following subsection: (3)  A police officer may arrest without warrant a person who, in response to the requirement of the police officer made under subsection (1)  – (a) refuses or fails to state his or her name or the address of his or her place of abode; or (b) states a name or an address of a place of abode that the police officer reasonably believes to be false. 10Section 19 amended (Special hardship orders) Section 19(1A) of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by inserting in paragraph (a) "during any period of disqualification or" after "committed"; (b) by inserting after paragraph (e) the following paragraph: (ea) at the time of the offence the offender was not authorised under a driver’s licence to drive the vehicle in respect of which the offence was committed or cannot satisfy the court that he or she would, but for an unintentional failure to comply with an administrative requirement, have been so authorised to drive that vehicle at that time; or 11Section 22 amended (Application of Division 1) Section 22 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting subsection (1) and substituting the following subsection: (1)  This Division applies to any proceedings in respect of any crime or offence specified in subsection (2) if one or more of the following matters is relevant to the proceedings: (a) whether a person was or was not under the influence, or the extent to which a person was under the influence, of intoxicating liquor at the time of the commission of the crime or offence; (b) the concentration of alcohol in the blood of a person at the time of the commission of the crime or offence; (c) whether or not a person failed or refused to submit to a breath analysis. 12Section 25A amended (Evidence of matters related to refusal to submit to breath analysis) Section 25A of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by omitting from subsection (1)(b) and (d) "by whom the certificate purports to be signed"; (b) by omitting from subsection (2)(a) "a named police officer" and substituting "the person by whom the certificate purports to be signed"; (c) by omitting paragraph (e) from subsection (2) and substituting the following paragraphs: (e) that at that time the person by whom the certificate purports to be signed informed the person named in the certificate that he or she could elect to submit to the taking of a sample of blood for analysis instead of submitting to a breath analysis; (f) that the person named in the certificate did not so elect to submit to the taking of a sample of blood for analysis; and (g) that at that time the person by whom the certificate purports to be signed was an approved operator – 13Section 29B insertedAfter section 29A of the Principal Act , the following section is inserted: 29BCertificate as to alcohol dependency A certificate purporting to be signed by a registered medical practitioner or person of a class prescribed for the purposes of section 6(4)(c)(ii) and certifying that the person named in it is not alcohol-dependent is evidence of the matters contained in it.

[Second reading presentation speech made in:

House of Assembly on 16 OCTOBER 1997

Legislative Council on 30 OCTOBER 1997]