Victorian new Drink/Drug Driving laws.

[Sturdee]

Today the new harsher drink/drug driving laws take effect and this will be of interest to non Vic members who may visit our state.

In brief there is no longer any low range drink driving offence whereby first offenders can avoid loss of licence.

Any driver found at a breath testing station to have .050 or more BAC will loose their licence on the spot for 3 months, have to complete a compulsory drink driver behaviour change program and need to get an alcohol interlock installed in any vehicle they drive (once re-licensed) for at least six months. This is mandatory and in addition to what the Court may impose.

This applies to all drivers and also for Victorian drivers that get caught interstate.

Also of interest may be that of you exceed the speed limit by 25 k's there is an automatic one month licence cancellation. Easy to do if you pass emergency vehicles with red and blue flashing lights working, school zones and temporary road work speed limits that are all 40 k's in Victoria.

Peter.

[ian]

The Vic Government is that short of revenue?

[cava]

The Vic Government is that short of revenue?

Yes.

[China]

South Australia has had mandatory loss of licence for first offence DUI for years, school zones are 25k when children are present 24hrs, work zones are 25k and have been for at least 40 years
40k when passing emergency vehicles with lights flashing has been in force since 2006, welcome to the club

[Sturdee]

The Vic Government is that short of revenue?

No, but the government is determined to lower the road toll. They are removing level crossings, building new roads and getting the drink and drive culture changed.

If this does not lower the road toll they are looking further ahead to lowering the .050 to .020 legal BAC limit according to the Roads Minister.

Peter.

[Chris Parks]

They will eventually work out that there is a practical limit where punitive measures have no effect....or being politicians maybe they won't. It must be obvious even to the most unthinking person that it is impossible to get to zero so where is that lower limit? Maybe they have reached it already and the sad thing is that limit goes up every time there is an increase of drivers on the road. If I had my way the BA reading would be .02% in the whole of Australia but I am under no illusions that having a zero limit would stop drink driving or reduce fatalities if the lower limits have already been reached.

[Pat]

I thought that the states and Commonwealth were attempting to simplify the road rules and have them the same in every state.

Blessed politicians!

[TermiMonster]

Easy to do if you pass emergency vehicles with red and blue flashing lights working, school zones and temporary road work speed limits that are all 40 k's in Victoria.

Peter.

I understand why this was introduced, but it is a matter of time before someone is killed when cars travelling at 100 or 110 on a hwy suddenly come to a bunch of cars doing 40.
Hopefully not.
TM

[ian]

I applaud your government, but "wish them luck" if they think the ONLY action is to change the drink/drive culture.

From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3599447/ "Fatigue is an important and frequent symptom in obese patients."
and whilst I can't immediately find the correlation, moderate levels of fatigue are equivalent to relatively low BAC readings.
I can't immediately find the source of this statement "The researchers found that after 17 to 19 hours without sleep, subjects performed about the same as those with a 0.05% BAC"
17 to 19 hours without sleep would be fairly typical for young males -- got up at 7 and still going at 1 AM the next morning. Sounds "normal" ?

[Dibbers]

I still maintain that some school zones pose a higher risk of accidents than they reduce... If a school is on a main road with a normal speed limit greater than 60km/h, then there should be no school zone. Councils should be required to put adequate fencing between the footpath and the road, and a footbridge/tunnel built for pedestrian traffic.

This not only keeps kids away from the main roads, but it also means that drivers unfamiliar with the area aren't suprised by the sudden drop in speed from 70/80km/h to 40... not to mention it will help with the traffic that school zones create on these main roads... b-doubles having to come to a virtual standstill, then their slow crawl to get back up to speed.

One of my biggest gripes with roads (sydney roads in particular) is that you can have 3 changes in speed limits for a 2km stretch of road... creates a culture of looking at the speedo rather than the road if you ask me...

[Sturdee]

40k when passing emergency vehicles with lights flashing has been in force since 2006, welcome to the club

As we're planning a road trip to SA later this year I've been looking into that and as far as I'm aware it's 25 k as well.

Peter.

[Sturdee]

I thought that the states and Commonwealth were attempting to simplify the road rules and have them the same in every state.

Blessed politicians!

Sorry Pat but we will always have different Road laws for we have the famous "hook turns"

Peter.

[Sturdee]

I still maintain that some school zones pose a higher risk of accidents than they reduce...

I agree but in Vic most have the flashing speed signs to indicate when the school zone begins. Also on the one near us on a main road warning signs are ereceted ahead of the school zone.

One of my biggest gripes with roads (sydney roads in particular) is that you can have 3 changes in speed limits for a 2km stretch of road... creates a culture of looking at the speedo rather than the road if you ask me...

Most of these here are removed, you have either 60, 80 or 100 speed limits. There are still a few 70 and 90 k and they are slated for removal.

Peter.

[Sturdee]

I understand why this was introduced, but it is a matter of time before someone is killed when cars travelling at 100 or 110 on a hwy suddenly come to a bunch of cars doing 40.
Hopefully not.
TM

I understand this as well and agree with the logic behind it but when you look into the details it is disastrous. Did you know that when a police car with lights flashing is booking a driver on the other side of say a 4 lane road (not being a divided road) you must lower your speed to 40 k else they can book you as well.

Peter.

[Pat]

How about the "P" turn, Hoddle St?