521Power to enter and search heavy vehicle involved, or suspected to be involved, in an offence etc.

521 Power to enter and search heavy vehicle involved, or suspected to be involved, in an offence etc.

521 Power to enter and search heavy vehicle involved, or suspected to be involved, in an offence etc.

(1) An authorised officer may, using necessary and reasonable help and force, enter and search a heavy vehicle for investigation purposes if the officer reasonably believes—

(a) the vehicle is being, or has been, used to commit an offence against this Law; or

(b) the vehicle, or a thing in the vehicle, may provide evidence of an offence against this Law that is being, or has been, committed; or

(c) the vehicle has been or may have been involved in an incident involving the death of, or injury to, a person or damage to property.

(2) The authorised officer may form the necessary belief—

(a) during or after an inspection of the heavy vehicle under Part 9.2 or section 520; or

(b) independently of an inspection of the heavy vehicle under Part 9.2 or section 520.

(3) Without limiting subsection (1), the authorised officer may—

(a) search any part of the heavy vehicle or any part of its equipment or load for evidence of an offence against this Law; and

(b) inspect, examine or film any part of the heavy vehicle or any part of its equipment or load; and

(c) without limiting paragraph (b), look for, check the details of, or film a registration item, label or other thing required to be displayed on the heavy vehicle under an Australian road law; and

(d) search for and inspect a document, device or other thing in the heavy vehicle; and

(e) take an extract from a document, device or other thing in the heavy vehicle, including, for example—

(i) by taking a copy of, or an extract from, a readout or other data obtained from a device or other thing in the vehicle; or

(ii) by accessing and downloading information from a device or other thing in the vehicle; and

Example of device or other thing—

an intelligent transport system

(f) copy a document in the heavy vehicle, or take a document in the heavy vehicle somewhere else to copy it; and