Road Traffic (Omnibus) Regulations 1975

These regulations impose duties and liabilities on three broad categories of persons: owners of omnibuses, drivers and fare collectors of omnibuses, and passengers or persons attempting to board. Owners bear significant administrative burdens, including the obligation to maintain a record of all drivers (full name, address, dates and times of driving) and to produce that record for police inspection on demand. They also must receive and register lost property handed in by drivers, maintain a register of that property, and within seven days of finding (or 24 hours for perishable items) deliver unclaimed property to the nearest police station. The owner or their representative must provide a receipt to the driver for property handed in. The regulations do not define owner, but it would include natural persons, partnerships and corporations that own or operate omnibuses, including private school bus operators, tourist bus companies and transport authorities. Drivers are the principal point of compliance. They must not permit boarding by disorderly, drunk, infectious or offensive persons or animals (subject to disability assistance animal exceptions). They must not overload the omnibus, smoke while carrying passengers, permit smoking on smaller omnibuses (except tourist omnibuses) or in non-designated areas on larger omnibuses, act in a disorderly or offensive manner, start the bus prematurely while a passenger is entering or alighting, deceive or refuse to inform a passenger about destination or route, prevent an intending passenger from entering (unless otherwise required by the regulations), or suffer any person to occupy a position that impairs the driver’s control. Drivers must also search the vehicle at the end of each journey and hand in any lost property. They may be required by regulation 6 to request a person to alight if the bus is full, the person is drunk or annoyingly attired, or the person acts in a noisy, violent or abusive manner after a warning. They may use reasonable force to effect removal. Fare collectors must not demand or receive excessive fares and must give correct change. Passengers must not smoke except in designated areas on larger omnibuses (and only when not a school bus) or on a tourist omnibus; must not interfere with the driver, hold onto external parts, ride on the roof, enter or alight while the bus is in motion, obstruct others, enter a full bus after being informed it is full, remain if drunk or annoyingly attired, or act in a noisy, violent or abusive manner. Police officers have enforcement and inspection powers: they can demand the owner’s driver records and the lost property register, and they receive unclaimed property at the police station after seven days. The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia is indirectly affected because the regulations are subject to the Public Transport Authority Regulations 2003, and property found in PTA vehicles is exempt from the seven day police delivery requirement.

The regulations create a set of reciprocal duties and rights. Drivers have a duty to refuse boarders under regulation 4: they must not permit any person to board who is drunk, annoyingly attired, noisy, disorderly, infected, carrying offensive or dangerous substances, or carrying an animal (subject to disability assistance animal exceptions). They also must not cause or permit overloading (regulation 5(a)), with the counting rules for children under six and children aged six to thirteen. They must not smoke while conveying passengers (regulation 5(b)), must not permit smoking on omnibuses licensed to carry 21 or fewer passengers except tourist omnibuses (regulation 5(d)), and must not permit smoking on larger omnibuses except in designated areas and only when not used as a school bus (regulation 5(c)). They must not act in a disorderly or offensive manner (regulation 5(f)), must not start the bus while a passenger is entering or alighting (regulation 5(g)), must not deceive or refuse to inform passengers about destinations (regulation 5(h)), and must not prevent an intending passenger from entering unless required by the regulations (regulation 5(i)). They must also keep the bus clear of any position that could impair the driver’s control (regulation 5(e)). Under regulation 6, drivers have a right (and an obligation) to request a person to alight if the bus is fully loaded, the person is drunk or annoyingly attired, or the person acts in a noisy, violent or abusive manner after being told to stop. If the person refuses, the driver and/or bus inspector may use reasonably necessary force to remove them (regulation 6(2)). This is a significant power, though limited by the reasonableness standard. Under regulation 10, drivers must search the bus at the end of each journey and hand any found property to the owner or their representative within 24 hours (or sooner if claimed), and obtain a receipt. Passengers have the right not to be prevented from entering the omnibus unless it is full or they fall under a prohibited category (regulation 5(i) creates a duty on the driver not to prevent entry except as required by the regulations). Passengers also have the right to be informed truthfully of the destination and route (regulation 5(h)). Passengers who lose property can claim it from the driver, owner or representative, but must prove ownership to the satisfaction of the person holding it and must sign the register (regulation 10(5)). Fare collectors and drivers must not demand or receive a fare exceeding the legal fare, and must give correct change if a passenger proffers money of greater value (regulation 11(1),(2)). Passengers have the duty to pay the legal fare on demand (regulation 11(3)).

Regulation 12 provides that every person who by act or omission contravenes any of the regulations commits an offence. The penalty is a fine not exceeding two penalty units for a first offence and not exceeding four penalty units for a subsequent offence. A subsequent offence is one committed after a previous conviction under these regulations, the repealed Traffic (Omnibus) Regulations 1965 or the repealed Traffic (Omnibus) Regulations 1974. The penalty units are defined under the Criminal Code or the Sentencing Act 1995 (WA) and currently (as of 2025) each penalty unit is $50. Therefore, a first offence carries a maximum fine of $100 and a subsequent offence a maximum fine of $200. These are very low maximum fines, especially considering the regulations cover matters such as overloading, smoking on a bus full of children, driving under the influence (though that may be separately covered by other laws), and failure to secure lost property. The low penalty reduces the deterrent effect of the regulations. Enforcement is carried out by members of the Police Force, who have powers to demand production of the driver records (regulation 9(1)) and the lost property register (regulation 10(4)). There is no provision for infringement notices, suspension of licences, demerit points, or court orders beyond the fine. The regulation does not create any vicarious liability for owners for acts of drivers, except where the owner personally fails to keep records or handle lost property. There is no provision for the owner to be liable for a driver’s overloading or smoking offence unless the owner caused or permitted it, which is partly implied by the regulations (e.g., regulation 5(a) says the driver shall not cause or permit overloading; the owner is not directly mentioned there). However, regulation 9 imposes a positive duty directly on the owner. The low penalty regime suggests that enforcement may be infrequent and that the regulations now serve more as a standard of conduct for informal resolution by drivers and inspectors rather than a heavy enforcement tool. Nonetheless, the removal powers in regulation 6(2) allow immediate physical removal without resort to prosecution, which may be the primary enforcement mechanism.

Regulation 2(1) expressly provides that nothing in these regulations affects the operation of the Public Transport Authority Regulations 2003. This means that where the PTA regulations impose additional or different requirements on public transport services run by the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia, those regulations prevail. For example, the lost property provisions in regulation 10(6) exclude from the seven day police delivery requirement property found in a vehicle involved in providing a public passenger transport service by the PTA. That suggests the PTA has its own lost property regime. Regulation 2(2) states these regulations are subject to any written law and any Commonwealth law about assistance animals as defined in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 section 9(2). This means that the driver’s duty under regulation 4(d) to not permit any animal to board is overridden if the animal is a disability assistance animal as defined in the DDA. The owner or driver cannot refuse boarding to a person with an assistance animal on the basis that the animal is a prohibited substance or animal. This amendment was inserted in 2014 to align the regulations with federal anti-discrimination law. The regulations also sit under the Road Traffic Act 1974 (WA), which is the parent Act. That Act provides the general road traffic rules, licensing, and enforcement framework. The regulations do not duplicate road traffic offences such as drink driving or dangerous driving; they cover specific omnibus conduct. There is potential overlap with the Public Transport Authority Act 2003 and regulations for government operated services, but the express non-effect clause clarifies that these regulations are secondary. There is also interaction with the School Education Act 1999 or Department of Education policies on school bus safety, though not mentioned in the text. The child counting rules in regulation 5(a) may interact with school bus licensing conditions. The smoking prohibitions may be superseded by later state or local government health regulations banning smoking in all public transport or enclosed public places, but these regulations still technically apply and create an offence, albeit with a low penalty. The Tourism Commission Act or other tourism regulations may define tourist omnibus, but that term is not defined here. The regulations lack any interaction with the Fair Work Act 2009 or industrial awards regarding driver hours.

The regulations were originally gazetted on 29 May 1975 and commenced on 1 June 1975. They were amended three times. The first amendment was the Road Traffic (Omnibus) Amendment Regulations 1982, gazetted and commenced on 2 February 1982. That amendment made changes to regulation 9 (record of drivers) and regulation 10 (lost property), as indicated by the marginal notes in the compilation. The exact nature of those changes is not specified in the text, but the amendments appear to have added or modified the record keeping and lost property obligations. The second amendment was the Road Traffic (Omnibus) Amendment Regulations 1997, gazetted on 23 December 1997 and commencing on 1 January 1998. That amendment replaced the penalty provisions in regulation 12, adjusting the fine to the penalty unit system. Previously, the regulations likely specified a dollar amount; the 1997 amendment aligned with the move to penalty units under the Sentencing Act 1995. The third amendment was part of the Road Traffic (Repeals and Amendment) Regulations 2014, Part 8, gazetted on 23 December 2014 and commencing on 27 April 2015. This was a substantial package that inserted the new regulation 2 (application), which added the disability assistance animal provision and the non-effect clause regarding PTA regulations. It also amended regulation 4 to explicitly refer to the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Commonwealth) in relation to animals. Regulation 10 was also amended to add subregulation (6) excluding perishable property and property found in PTA service vehicles from the seven day police delivery requirement. The compilation table notes that the regulations were reprinted (Reprint 1) as at 12 September 2003, which included all amendments to that date. The notes also list repealed predecessor regulations: the Traffic (Omnibus) Regulations 1965 and 1974, both repealed by these regulations.

The source text does not name any specific cases that have been decided under these regulations. The regulations are old, with low penalties, which may explain a paucity of appellate authority. It is likely that enforcement occurs in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia and that convictions are minor and rarely reported. The use of reasonable force under regulation 6(2) could potentially be litigated in tort (assault or battery) if the force used exceeds what is reasonably necessary, but the regulation provides statutory authority for removal, which would be a defence if the force is proportionate. Any such litigation would likely be in civil claims rather than under these regulations themselves. The disability assistance animal interaction could lead to complaints under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) rather than litigation under the state regulations. The regulations’ low penalty regime means that there is little incentive for a defendant to appeal a conviction, and the legal issues involved (interpretation of “annoyance”, “full loaded”, “smoke”, etc.) are fact specific. No decisions of the Supreme Court of Western Australia or the Court of Appeal citing these regulations are referenced in the text. It is reasonable to infer that litigation history is minimal.

Several provisions contain traps for the unwary. The overloading rules in regulation 5(a) require careful application: a child under six on a lap is not counted at all, but children aged six to thirteen are counted at a ratio of three to two adults, with fractions disregarded. This means that for a small bus with capacity of 12 adults, the driver could carry, say, five adults and seven children aged 6-13 (7 children count as 4.66 adults, fraction disregarded -> 4 adults, plus 5 actual adults = 9 adult equivalents, within capacity). But mix and match requires precise calculation. A driver carrying 13 children could claim 13/3 * 2 = 8.66, fraction disregarded -> 8 adult equivalents, but if the bus is licensed for 9 adults, it would be permissible? The wording “any resultant fractional number being disregarded” means the driver does not round up. So 13 children count as 8 adults, not 9. That could allow more children than seems intuitive. The smoking rules are complex: on an omnibus licensed to carry more than 21 passengers, smoking is permitted only in a designated portion or seats “by notice” and only when not used as a school bus. The regulation does not require the notice to be displayed in a particular manner. On an omnibus licensed to carry 21 or fewer passengers, smoking is prohibited except in a tourist omnibus (undefined). The regulation does not prohibit the driver from smoking when not conveying passengers, but regulation 5(b) prohibits smoking “while the vehicle is conveying passengers” - so a driver could smoke while stopped not conveying passengers, though other laws may apply. The lost property regime imposes a duty on the driver to search the bus “on the termination of each journey”. For a driver making many short trips, this could be burdensome. If the driver does not search, they commit an offence. The owner must take unclaimed property to the nearest police station “seven days after its finding”, but perishable property is exempt after 24 hours. The owner must also obtain a receipt from the police officer. If the police station is closed or refuses to accept the property, the owner may be in breach despite efforts; the regulation does not provide an alternative. The record of drivers requirement (regulation 9) only requires production for the six months prior to the demand. It does not specify how long the record must be retained. An owner could destroy records older than six months, but must keep records for the current period. If a police demand is made for records older than six months, the owner may refuse without penalty. However, if the owner voluntarily retains older records, they must still produce them? The regulation says the owner “is not required” to produce, implying no penalty for non-production but also no obligation to keep them. The removal power under regulation 6(2) allows removal “using such force against the person as is reasonably necessary”. This is a narrow statutory defence to what would otherwise be assault. The driver or bus inspector must be careful to use only force proportionate to the situation. If the person submits, further force would be unreasonable. The removal is limited to the person “failing or refusing to alight” after being requested under subregulation (1). The basis for the request must be one of the three grounds: bus full, drunkenness/attire annoyance, or continued noisy/violent/abusive behaviour after a warning. The driver cannot invoke this power for other reasons (e.g., a passenger who just looks suspicious). The passenger must have actually been requested to alight. The passenger then has a duty to alight; if they fail, the driver may remove. The driver cannot use the power to remove a person who never boarded (i.e., at the door). The regulations also do not address what happens if the driver fails to request removal; the passenger may remain. The fare provisions do not define “legal fare”. That would be set by the operator, presumably with regulatory approval, but the regulations do not specify. A driver could be charged with demanding an excessive fare if the fare is not the legal fare. The passenger must pay on demand, though if the fare is disputed, the passenger could pay and later seek refund, but the regulation does not provide a process. The penalty for the passenger not paying is a fine under regulation 12, not a civil debt.

Compliance requires a systematic approach by owners and drivers. Owners should implement a driver record system that captures, for each driver, their full name and place of abode (current residential address), and the dates and times of each driving period. This record must be kept for at least six months and be available for immediate police inspection. The record can be maintained electronically or on paper, provided the format allows production on demand. For lost property, owners must keep a register (electronic or paper) that records a description of the property, the date and circumstances of finding, and the name of the driver who handed it in. The owner must take any unclaimed property to the nearest police station seven days after its finding, unless it is perishable (then 24 hours) or it is property found in a PTA service vehicle (exempt from that duty). When handing over property, the owner must obtain a receipt from the police officer. The owner should train drivers on their duty to search the bus at the end of each journey and to hand in any property within 24 hours (or sooner if claimed) and to obtain a receipt. Drivers must be trained to refuse boarding to persons who are drunk, annoyingly attired, noisy, disorderly, infected, carrying offensive/dangerous substances, or carrying an animal that is not a disability assistance animal. They must also be trained not to overload, using the child counting rules: children under six on laps are ignored; children six to thirteen count as two-thirds of an adult. Drivers must not smoke while conveying passengers. They must designate smoking areas on omnibuses licensed to carry more than 21 passengers (by notice clearly displayed) and ensure no smoking elsewhere, except when used as a school bus (then no smoking at all). For omnibuses licensed to carry 21 or fewer passengers, smoking is banned except on tourist omnibuses. Drivers must not start the bus while a passenger is entering or alighting, must not deceive or refuse to answer destination queries, and must not prevent an intending passenger from boarding unless the bus is full or the person falls under a prohibited boarding category. Drivers should be trained on the removal procedure: first request the person to alight on one of the statutory grounds (bus full, drunk/annoying attire, or continued noisy/violent/abusive behaviour after a warning). If the person refuses, the driver (or bus inspector) may use reasonably necessary force to remove. Force should be minimal, and the driver should call police if the situation escalates. Passengers should be aware of their duties: no smoking on smaller buses, only in designated areas on larger non school buses, and never on a school bus; no interfering with the driver; no holding external parts; no riding on roof; no entering or alighting while moving; no obstructing others; no entering a full bus after being told it is full; no remaining while drunk or annoyingly attired; no acting in a noisy, violent or abusive manner. Passenger compliance with fare payment: pay the legal fare on demand; if overpaying, the driver or fare collector should give correct change; if they do not, the passenger may have a claim but must still pay. The owner should post notices where required (smoking areas) and ensure that drivers are aware of the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992 regarding assistance animals; the driver must not refuse boarding because of an assistance animal. Given the low penalties, the primary risk is not financial but reputational and operational disruption from poor compliance. Regular auditing of driver records and lost property handling would minimise risk. Owners should also ensure that their operations do not conflict with the Public Transport Authority Regulations 2003 where they intersect with PTA services.