Posts Categorized: Traffic Law

Unjust Drug Driving Laws Persist, Eight Years on from Historic Ruling

Drug Driving Laws

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

Driver Asleep

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 »

Reductions in Penalties for Driving Whilst Suspended or Disqualified Have Not Increased Offending

NSW driver licence in wallet

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

Unequal scales of justice

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 »