What it does
The Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1970 establishes a comprehensive framework to deter and penalise driving while affected by alcohol or prescribed illicit drugs. It creates three principal categories of offence: driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the extent of being incapable of proper control (section 4), driving with a breath or blood alcohol concentration exceeding the prescribed concentration of 0.05 (section 6(1)), and driving with any presence of a prescribed illicit drug in the blood or oral fluid (section 6A(1)). A further tier of strict liability offences applies to persons in high-risk categories such as learner licence holders, provisional licence holders, drivers of prescribed vehicles (passenger transport vehicles, heavy vehicles over 4.5 tonnes GVM, and dangerous goods vehicles), and repeat offenders, who must have no alcohol present in the body at all while driving (section 6(2)-(4)). The Act empowers police to conduct random breath tests and oral fluid tests on drivers on public streets without any suspicion of impairment (sections 7A, 7B). It establishes a graduated series of enforcement powers including roadside testing, breath analysis at a police station, oral fluid analysis, and compulsory blood sampling when a test cannot be completed or when a driver is involved in a crash causing injury (sections 7C, 10A). A central feature is the five-hour time window from the relevant time (the last act of driving) within which all compulsory testing and sampling must be commenced (sections 10(3), 10(7), 12(4)). The Act also creates ancillary offences for failing or refusing to comply with testing requirements (section 14), for consuming alcohol or drugs before testing is completed (section 14(8)), and for driving while disqualified (section 19A). Penalties are set out in a detailed Table attached to section 17, with mandatory minimum fines and disqualification periods that escalate for subsequent offences and higher alcohol concentrations. The evidentiary part of the Act (Part III) establishes statutory presumptions that link the concentration measured at the time of testing back to the time of driving, shifting the evidentiary burden onto the defendant in certain circumstances. Road safety disqualification notices under section 18B allow for immediate on-the-spot disqualification pending court determination in serious cases. The Act also regulates the handling, analysis and destruction of blood and oral fluid samples, and restricts the use of samples to road safety offences only (section 21A).