- Minister for Police and Emergency Services
High-speed hoons and dangerous drivers will be immediately taken from the roads as part of tough new laws which passed Parliament last night.
The Andrews Labor Government introduced the legislation to crack down on those who put members of the community at risk on our roads, and it is now enshrined in law.
The new laws will introduce immediate licence suspension for excessive speeding offences and where someone has been charged with using a motor vehicle as a weapon to commission a serious offence. Currently, immediate licence suspension is applied to drivers caught with drugs or excessive alcohol in their system.
Under the new laws, motorists caught travelling 45 km/hr or more over the speed limit or 145 km/hr or more in a 110 km/h zone will have their licence stripped as soon as they’re caught.
The same will apply to anyone charged with murder, attempted murder, gross violence offences and causing serious injury offences if they used a motor vehicle to commission the offence and it resulted in death or injury.
The new laws make clear that people charged with committing serious offences while behind the wheel pose an unacceptable risk to public safety and reflect community expectation that they should lose their licence and be removed from the road as soon as they are charged.
The laws also respond to the brave advocacy of victims and their families who have been further harmed by subsequently seeing dangerous drivers behind the wheel in the lead up to the court case.
It will also ensure that a person who commits a ‘serious motor vehicle offence’, while under the influence of alcohol or alcohol and a drug at the time of offence will be subject to mandatory licence sanctions, including a mandatory alcohol interlock condition upon relicencing and requirement to complete a behaviour change program.
The new laws deliver on a key commitment in the Community Safety Statement 2019-20 to introduce legislation ensuring drivers charged with certain offences are immediately suspended from driving.
As noted by Minister for Police and Emergency Services Lisa Neville
“These new laws will see those charged with driving at an excessive speed or using a vehicle as a weapon for other offences immediately removed from our roads – as they should be.”
“Our new laws reflect the expectations of all Victorians and will ensure that anyone charged with serious offences involving a motor vehicle, or caught at excessive speeds, cannot get straight behind the wheel again.”
