By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (NSWCCA) confirmed in a 19 February 2024 ruling that the offence of the offence of drug driving in New South Wales is an absolute liability offence, which means the long relied upon legal defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact is not… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Traffic Law
NSW Police Pursuits Surge by Over 70 Percent in Eight Years
Seven teenagers were charged with offences ranging from car theft to police pursuit early on Monday, as NSW police attempted to stop three vehicles close to the NSW town of Woy Woy at 2.30 am, as these were suspected to be reportedly stolen from suburbs around the Central Coast. One vehicle, a BMW, rammed into a police… Read more »
Unjust Drug Driving Laws Persist, Eight Years on from Historic Ruling
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Eight years ago last Thursday, in Lismore Local Court, then NSW Magistrate David Heilpern ruled in favour of Joseph Carrall in regard to a drug driving charge, as he found the accused hadn’t consumed cannabis for “at least nine days prior” to testing positive for driving with its presence in… Read more »
The Defence of Automatism: No Criminal Responsibility for Unconscious and Unforeseeable Conduct
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim At 4.51 am on 19 December 2019, Nicholas Parker was driving his father’s car along Kurrajong Road in the NSW town of Richmond, when the 19-year-old apprentice electrician fell asleep, veered across to the other side of the road and hit two cyclists riding along the shoulder of the… Read more »
Conviction for High Range Drinking Driver Quashed, as Police Failed to Follow the Rules
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim At around 7.45 pm on 19 June 2021, Dean Mason came off his motor scooter at an intersection in the NSW town of Cardiff. The rider was then observed lying in the gutter nearby his scooter by the occupants of a car that had been travelling behind him in… Read more »
Reductions in Penalties for Driving Whilst Suspended or Disqualified Have Not Increased Offending
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A 2013 NSW parliamentary report into the laws then applying to unauthorised driving found that cases were clogging up the NSW Local Court, penalties were disproportionately steep with no discretion to curb their severity, and their impact was causing havoc within the community. In response, the Berejiklian government passed… Read more »
Personal Factors Cannot Affect the Objective Seriousness of an Offence
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Moustaffa Zreika was driving a 6.5 tonne Hino Tipper truck down Burnett Street in Sydney’s Merrylands on 22 July 2017, when the vehicle crossed the double lines down the centre of the road, whilst attempting a slight left-hand bend. The truck sideswiped an oncoming car and then continued down… Read more »
NSW Drink and Drug Driving Laws and Penalties Part 2: Drug Driving and the Combined Drink and Drug Driving
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The Berejiklian government launched the NSW Road Safety Plan 2021 in early 2018. It aims to reduce the road fatality rate in this state to 30 percent below the levels seen in 2008 through to 2010. A number of bills have been passed since the launch of the program… Read more »
NSW Drink and Drug Driving Laws and Penalties Part 1: PCA and DUI
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In February 2018, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and then state roads minister Melinda Pavey launched the NSW Road Safety Plan 2021. It consists of a series of road safety goals with the aim of reducing driving risks and, in turn, road trauma. The state priority target is to reduce… Read more »
Sentence for Dangerous Driving Occasioning GBH Reduced on Appeal
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 21 June 2014, Sydney motor mechanic Jason Mansweto was driving his newly restored 1969 GT Ford Falcon XW sedan along Canoona Avenue in Windsor Downs, when he found that the brakes didn’t work as he tried to slow down to take a sharp left turn. Before the drive,… Read more »