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Parliamentary Questions


Question On Notice No. 773 asked in the Legislative Council on 13 March 2018 by Hon Martin Aldridge

Question Directed to the: Minister for Environment representing the Minister for Road Safety
Parliament: 40 Session: 1


Question

I refer to the Government's recent changes to the Road Traffic Code 2000, and I ask:
(a) when was the last review of penalties undertaken to ensure they remain consistent with each other and meet community expectations;
(b) how does the Minister explain and reconcile the difference in penalties applied to those who fail to keep a safe distance when passing a bicycle ($400, 3 demerit points) and those who pass an incident response vehicle at a speed greater than 40 kilometres per hour ($300, 3 demerit points);
(c) is the Minister aware that driving a motor vehicle on a footpath could attract an infringement of $100 and no demerit points; and
(d) if yes to (c), does the Minister believe that the applicable penalty is relevant given the new regulatory changes with respect to safe travelling distances from bicycles?

Answered on 11 April 2018

(a) 2014.

(b) In determining the appropriate penalties for each offence, the Government considers a range of factors including crash risk and the need to maintain consistent penalties between similar offences involving a similar level of culpability.

In developing regulation 124A of the Road Traffic Code 2000, the Government determined that the penalty for failing to keep a safe distance when passing a bicycle should be the same as that for failing to keep a safe distance when overtaking any other vehicle in regulation 124 – an infringement penalty of $400 and 4 demerit points.

When determining the penalty in regulation 137A for failing to pass an incident response vehicle at no more than 40km/h, were extensively consulted by the Government and key stakeholders agreed it was appropriate to align the penalty with the relevant infringement and demerit point penalty for careless driving given the similar nature and culpability of the offending behaviour.

(c) Yes.

(d) I have asked the Road Safety Commission to conduct a review of all of the penalties in the Road Traffic Code 2000 and will consider the findings when they are presented to me.