Tougher penalties for fleeing drivers

The Govt has announced:

Police Minister Michael Woodhouse and Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss today announced stronger penalties for fleeing drivers and those who withhold information on fleeing drivers.

“Failure to stop when required by a police officer represents a calculated and deliberate attempt by offenders to evade punishment. They deliberately put the public at risk and too often their actions result in serious consequences,” Mr Woodhouse says.

There are around 2300 fleeing driver incidents every year and in 2014/15 this resulted in 460 crashes, which averages more than one a day.

And the blame for these crashes are with those fleeing, not the Police.

Changes announced today to amend the Land Transport Act 1998 and Sentencing Act 2002 will increase existing mandatory driver licence disqualification periods for failure to stop offences to six months for the first offence, 12 months for the second, and 24 months for third and subsequent offences.

Mandatory vehicle confiscation for second and subsequent failure to stop offences within a four year period will also be introduced, and courts will be given the ability to confiscate an offender’s vehicle for any first offences.

Sounds good.