Cocaine Testing May Lead to Fairer Drug Driving Laws
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on January 15 that the state government will be toughening drug driving penalties and increasing the number of mobile drug tests (MDTs), which is concerning to many given that the current regime is fundamentally flawed. NSW police...
NSW Drivers Will Be Tested For Cocaine
With the New South Wales road toll at its highest in eight years, the state government is introducing tough new measures including doubling the number of mobile drug tests (MDTs) and adding cocaine to the list of tested substances. 397...
Holiday Road Toll Climbs Despite Millions Spent on Road Safety
The NSW road toll continues to climb, despite extra spending by the NSW government on programs marketed as road safety initiatives and more police officers on highway patrol. Last financial year, the state government set aside $300 million for roads...
Unaccompanied L-Plater Charged with Driving Under the Influence
A learner-driver is facing multiple charges including driving under the influence and unaccompanied after being pulled over by police on the Northern Rivers. The story so far Police signalled 23-year old Mr Squires to pull over after allegedly seeing him...
Fatigue: The Silent Killer on Our Roads
Charges of negligent driving occasioning death have been brought against a Sydney Uber driver, reminding motorists to check ourselves for fatigue while on the road this summer. The driver will face court in January after allegedly accelerating while a passenger...
Disqualification Periods Slashed in NSW
On 28 October 2017, new laws came into effect reducing disqualification periods for driving without a valid licence, and abolishing the habitual offender scheme. New disqualification periods The new penalties can be summarised as follows: Offence Penalty where it’s your...
Disqualified Drivers Can Now Apply to Get Their Licences Back
The Road Transport Amendment (Driver Licence Disqualification) Act came into effect on 28 October 2017, allowing certain disqualified drivers in NSW to apply to the local court for the removal of their disqualification periods. Who can apply? If you are...
Stop Testing Drivers for Minute Traces of Cannabis
Most Australian states and territories currently carry out mobile drug testing (MDT) operations that only test for three illicit substances: amphetamines, MDMA and cannabis. In Tasmania and the Northern Territory, police test for longer lists of illegal drugs. In NSW, authorities have...
Mobile Phone Use While Driving – Statistics, Research and the Law
Using our mobile phones use has become so integrated into our lives, we may not even know how often we’re using them. We use our phones to email, check bank balances, pay bills, listen to music, take notes, scroll social...
Drug Driving Laws Are Not About Road Safety
In December 2015, the NSW government announced it was tripling the number of mobile drug tests carried out annually to 97,000 tests by this year. As might be expected, the number of motorists being charged with drug driving offences has also skyrocketed....
