I know this is ironic for me to write about, as I don’t have my licence or anything- but I did think it was an interesting read!
www.news.com.au have written a story today that people who aren’t driving with due care are likely to be fined on the spot up to $202.
“Section 45 of the Road Traffic Act covers a myriad of poor driving behaviour, from holding a hamburger or drink can while trying to indicate a change of direction, to applying lipstick while reversing.”
I looked up Section 45 of the Road Traffic Act and it says:
45—Careless driving
(1) A person must not drive a vehicle without due care or attention or without reasonable
consideration for other persons using the road.
(2) If a court convicts a person of an offence against this section that is an aggravated
offence, the following provisions apply:
(a) the maximum penalty for the offence is 12 months imprisonment; and
29.9.2008—Road Traffic Act 1961
Duties of drivers, passengers and pedestrians—Part 3
Vehicle misuse and careless and dangerous driving—Division 4
[29.9.2008] This version is not published under the Legislation Revision and Publication Act 2002 3
(b) the court must order that the person be disqualified from holding or obtaining
a driver’s licence for such period, being not less than 6 months, as the court
thinks fit; and
(c) the disqualification prescribed by paragraph (b) cannot be reduced or
mitigated in any way or be substituted by any other penalty or sentence.
(3) For the purposes of this section, an aggravated offence is—
(a) an offence that caused the death of, or serious harm to, a person; or
(b) an offence committed in any of the following circumstances:
(i) the offender committed the offence in the course of attempting to
escape pursuit by a police officer;
(ii) the offender was, at the time of the offence, driving a vehicle
knowing that he or she was disqualified, under the law of this State
or another State or Territory of the Commonwealth, from holding or
obtaining a driver’s licence or that his or her licence was suspended
by notice given under this Act;
(iii) the offender committed the offence while there was present in his or
her blood a concentration of .08 grams or more of alcohol in
100 millilitres of blood;
(iv) the offender was, at the time of the offence, driving a vehicle in
contravention of section 45A or 47.
(4) If a person is charged with an aggravated offence against this section, the
circumstances alleged to aggravate the offence must be stated in the instrument of
charge.
(5) In this section—
serious harm means—
(a) harm that endangers, or is likely to endanger, a person’s life; or
(b) harm that consists of, or is likely to result in, loss of, or serious and protracted
impairment of, a part of the body or a physical or mental function; or
(c) harm that consists of, or is likely to result in, serious disfigurement.
So simply put, you can be fined not only for talking on your mobile phone, but also eating, drinking, smoking, changing the cd… anything at all that distracts you from the full attention of driving.
I think this is very interesting, especially seeming there are pics of people doing very weird things. The one attached is shown on the news.com site, of a woman in Adelaide brushing her teeth while driving. & yes, this is illegal.
