STAYSAFE 13: FROM THE JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE UPON ROAD SAFETY CONCERNING IMMEDIATE AND CERTAIN LOSS OF LICENCE FOR EXTREME DRINK DRIVING

Much disquiet was felt by the staysafe committee at indications that our traffic law enforcement system may not be treating offenders swiftly, fairly and firmly, and may be viewed as a joke, rather than as a deterrent. There was also concern at a tendency to focus on punishment, rather than deterrence, in designing enforcement systems. It is through deterrence, rather than punishment, that measures like random breath testing have been extremely successful. Of further concern was an apparent double standard in regard to driving rights for alcoholics and for drivers with other ailments considered to be incompatible with consistently safe driving. Each year, nsw police are required to return to our roads about 7,000 drivers who probably have a serious alcoholism problem. Many of these people are free to drive for months before their licences are suspended by magistrates. Meanwhile, our licencing authority suspends or cancels almost 30,000 licences per year, without any court hearings, for matters like exceeding demerit points limits, medical impairments, and failing to pass a driving test on reaching age 85 years. In this report, the committee examines the particularly destructive group of drivers who choose to drink and drive with three times the legal limit, that is with 0.15 per cent blood alcohol concentration. The enormous damage done is reviewed, deterrence theory is explored, indications of substantial effectiveness for immediate licence cancellation are presented, and a tried and tested procedure involving the police is recommended. (TRRL)

• Corporate Authors:

  Parliament of New South Wales

  Parliament House, 6 MacQuarie Street
  Sydney, New South Wales  Australia  2000
• Publication Date: 1989-4

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 41 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blood alcohol levels; Costs; Crash severity; Crashes; Crimes; Driver licenses; Drug addiction; Fatalities; Intoxication; Law enforcement; Legislation; Penalties; Policy; Prevention; Revocation; Statistics
• Geographic Terms: Australia
• Old TRIS Terms: Driver license revocation
• ITRD Terms: 1643: Accident; 2230: Addiction; 8006: Australia; 1553: Blood alcohol content; 1500: Confiscation (driving licence); 224: Cost; 2231: Drunkenness; 1534: Enforcement (law); 1602: Fatality; 1556: Legislation; 1516: Offence; 1502: Penalty; 173: Policy; 9149: Prevention; 1623: Severity (accid, injury); 6555: Statistics
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Finance; Highways; Law; Policy; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00491521
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, TRIS, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 31 1990 12:00AM