Nothing changes in the drivers life. Nothing happens to make them aware of any changes.
They are kidding themselves if they believe that drivers actually take note, or remember, penalty increases.
The only people these affect are the drivers IF they are ever caught. It is too late then.
Why are they all too scared to get tough with these drivers?
Why do they insist on making it easier and easier for these drivers to stay ON the road?
At least be honest and say that this report was not about roads safety.
This report is about freeing up court time. Instead of dealing with the problems it is best to raise the bar so the problems disappear.
Why not face facts that we need more courts and 24hr courts at that.
In some other countries drivers are arrested and put into jail the moment they are detected drink driving, even if just for the night.
Here they are caught risking our lives two and three times in the same night and still not arrested!
There is a complete lack of understanding of what damage these drivers can actually do.
This report will not do anything at all to prevent road trauma.
The actions of the drivers have been softened and dumbed down –again.
The message is it isn’t serious, not even serious enough to go to jail.
The drivers out there now are all oblivious to the way it is now let alone any changes that are made and IF they are ever caught then all they will discover is there are now more ways to keep them on the road, because god forbid these drivers should be
inconvenienced in any way!
Drink driving is viewed in this report as nothing but an inconvenience to a drinkers licence.
They have even given it a low risk, medium risk, and high risk category!
Despite the fact that there isn’t any level of alcohol that is safe to be behind the wheel.
IT SHOULD BE ABOUT THE DRIVER BEING PREPARED TO DRIVE DRUNK,
NOT HOW DRUNK HE IS!!!
Why are they now sending this message?
Who ever said that .05 is a low level of alcohol when we are talking about risk to the general public?
That is like saying a hand gun is a low level weapon and that you are only in a little bit of trouble, but by golly we will take it seriously if you have a shotgun!
The difference in a low range, and mid range and high range of drink driving as described in this report, can also be because that was when the driver was ‘unlucky’ enough to be caught.
It could have been on his out to the first party and he was .06, had he been ‘unlucky’ enough to be caught on his way back home after the party he might be .17 and not until then is he deemed to be high risk!
It is still the same driver! It is still the same driver who is prepared to risk driving after drinking.
FIRST OFFENCE .05 MANDATORY ALOCHOL INTERLOCK WETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.
Licence loss while your car is impounded and fitted.
That is if you have been ‘lucky’ enough not to kill or maim anybody.
If you have killed or maimed any persons because of your choice to risk drink driving then you should be forbidden, yes forbidden, to ever own or drive a car again.
This penalty is not harsh at all. These are peoples lives we are talking about.
The consequences are too high to pussy foot around with drink drivers.
We have so many repeat offenders because the boundaries have been moved further and further away. It is human nature to push the boundaries and it is human nature to go right to the boundaries. The further the boundaries are for these drivers that is exactly where drivers will go.
In the days when drivers were actually given one months jail, driving without a licence was not common.
The drivers knew the boundaries, they knew it was enforced and they knew it wasn’t worth the risk. Now they know it is a joke and they treat it the same way.
Not hard to figure out.
So if we don’t want to send drivers to jail as a last resort, then what do we do to prevent them from driving without a licence?
Nothing in this report is going to prevent any driver from driving without a licence.
Unless it is done immediately nothing will change.
The consequences must be immediate for any change to take place.
IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES IS THE KEY TO CHANGE
The technology of the ANPR (automated number plate recognition) to detect more drivers
is going to do just that, detect more drivers! And then what?
Eventually impound their cars. The way the courts are now by the time the police get the ok to impound the vehicle their licence suspension will be over!
And they would have been driving the whole time anyway.
Now we have a problem of cars that are impounded and never retrieved?
What happens if the driver doesn’t retrieve his car? Is he dealt with in any other way?
Or does the state just have another problem?
Why can’t these cars be immobilised at the drivers address?
Why does the state have to pay for space to store these cars?
The cars are normally parked at the address of the driver so why can’t they stay there and be immobilised?
The fact that this was already a mandatory sentence tell us that this problem was already around, and that people in the past had made the tough decision to make it a mandatory sentence.
So just what is the recommendation instead of one month’s jail?
Detect more drivers, but be careful not to upset anybody?
We are talking about detecting the car registration here, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the unlicenced driver driving the car.
I am amazed the civil libertarians are not up in arms about this.
The unlicenced driver may be doing the correct thing and not driving and yet his car is being pulled over because of the registration.
Some drivers have many cars registered in their names.
So his/her whole family is to be targeted?
Like all road safety initiatives it is still after the fact.
It is still skirting around the issue.
More local policing is needed to target these drivers alongside the ANPR
see article on local policing changes
THE DRINK DRIVING RECCOMENDATIONS
Our level of .05 is already higher than the current recommended level of .02 before a driver is impaired behind the wheel of a car.
Countries serious about road trauma and drink driving have .02 already in place.
These countries are not PRO drink driving.
All of our drink driving policies are PRO DRINK DRIVING
The recommended changes in this report re drink driving will not CHANGE anything because it is still up to the driver to approach the court and ask for an alcohol interlock device, AFTER and IF he is ever caught.
This will allow the drink driver to continue to drive during the suspension period providing he has approached the court and has permission to drive with an alcohol interlock.
So how does this fix the problem of the drink driver driving without licence?
Why would the said driver approach the court when he/she is happy to risk being caught driving unlicenced in the first place?
The problem now is they will not even apply to the courts after their suspension period is over because they know it is going to cost them to install an alcohol interlock device, so why would they do it now?
For many drivers the problem is they do not want anybody to know they have lost their licence for drink driving, or anything, so asking the court to put in an Alcohol Interlock is going to alert their friends and workplace to the fact.
It is still going to be a better option for them to gamble that they will not get caught.
The head of the Sentencing Advisory Council still views driving offences as a ‘social offences’ like littering and hasn’t understood that these are criminal choices that have devastating affects on peoples’ lives.
To die on the road is a horrific way to die and there isn’t anything that is too harsh to prevent this from happening.
read comment from Sentencing Advisory Council Launch
If they were very serious about this problem
THE GOVERNMENT WOULD MANDATORLY FORCILBY FIT THE SAID DRIVERS CAR WITH AN ALCOHOL INTERLOCK DEVICE WETHER HE/SHE
WANTS ONE OR NOT!
AT THE FIRST OFFENCE .05
The driver has failed to think about their driving enough if they have reached .05
.05 should be the only level we have.
If we still have deaths and injuries AT .05 then the next step must be .02
WHY IS IT STILL UP TO THE DRIVER TO DECIDE IF HE/SHE WANTS AN ALCOHOL INTERLOCK?
Why do they continue to pander to drink drivers?
View the whole report at the sentencing advisory council website, click below
http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/Sentencing+Council/Home/
