The ACT Government has passed new laws to help keep Canberrans safe by encouraging responsible and considerate behaviour on the road – whether driving, walking, cycling or scooting.
“We want all Canberrans to feel, and be, safe when they are moving around our city,” said Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel.
“That’s why we have strengthened the range of offences and penalties for unsafe behaviour that puts other road users at risk – particularly those who don’t have the protection of a car around them.”
The Government’s Road Transport Legislation Amendment Bill No. 1 makes a series of improvements to the ACT’s current road transport penalties framework, ensuring there is a clear hierarchy of offences, with escalating penalties from lower level dangerous behaviours through to the most serious negligent, dangerous or culpable driving. This includes:
- New offences for not taking due care and attention or providing reasonable consideration when driving and riding
- New and updated offences for driving and riding without having proper control
- New police powers to direct a person to get off, or not get on, devices like e-scooters and bikes with associated penalties where a direction is ignored
- Updated penalties for the existing offence of negligent driving that does not lead to injury or death
- A new offence for negligent driving occasioning actual bodily harm, to ensure that dangerous behaviour that causes injury to another road user is appropriately recognised and penalised as the serious matter that it is
- And higher automatic licence disqualification periods for several driving offences which result in serious harm or death.
“These new lower-level offences will act as early intervention tools to stop dangerous behaviour before someone gets hurt,” said Minister Steel.
“Importantly, they will apply to personal mobility devices like e-scooters, as well as other vehicles. In preparing for the city-wide roll out of shared e-scooters, we’ve heard that Canberrans want a clearer framework to guide good behaviour and encourage considerate sharing of the road when people are using these devices.”
The new offence of negligent driving occasioning actual bodily harm addresses a gap in the ACT’s current laws. It seeks to capture harm that is serious but not necessarily permanent – like major bruising, black eyes and lacerations. These types of harm are most often experienced by vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists when other road users don’t take enough care.
To ensure that Canberrans are aware of their obligations to be safe and protect all road users, the ACT Government will be rolling out a significant community education and awareness campaign from this month. The ‘Share the road’ campaign will be highly visible in public spaces, including on buses, at petrol stations and in shopping centres.
“These changes reflect our shared aim to stop dangerous behaviour before anyone gets hurt, and encourage Canberrans to take responsibility for keeping everyone safe on our roads,” Minister Steel said.
“All of us have a role to play in working towards Vision Zero: no deaths or serious injuries on Canberra’s roads.”
