Danger drivers to face big jail

DANGEROUS drivers could face up to 21 years in jail if found guilty in a Supreme Court trial, under new Hodgman Government legislation.

Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding said the offence of dangerous driving would be dealt with under the Criminal Code rather than the Traffic Act under the legislation.

“Making this charge an indictable offence that can be heard in the Supreme Court will better reflect the offence’s seriousness, along with the maximum sentence being increased to 21 years,” he said.

Mr Hidding said that under current laws a dangerous driver could avoid a charge if they did not kill or cause grievous bodily harm to someone.

“Now it will be that the dangerous driving charge can be brought against someone whose driving might conceivably have resulted in death,” he said.

“It raises the bar and says to anyone who drives dangerously, you could be up for 21 years in prison.”

Dangerous driving would cover behaviour such as hooning, high-range drink driving, drag racing and ridiculous speeding.

The move is the latest in the Hodgman Government’s law and order crackdown, which includes attempts to introduce mandatory penalties and tougher sentences for assaults of emergency service workers.

Opposition spokeswoman Michelle O’Byrne said Labor had no problem with courts having a greater range of penalties available.

“There are two aspects to this and one is the punishment, but there also needs the role we need to take to educate and train young drivers,” Mr Hidding said.

He said work by the Sentencing Advisory Council had been fed into the legislation.

He said the death of Hobart woman Sarah Paino had shocked Tasmanians, and people were horrified with the set of laws available for the courts to deal with the matter.

Mr Hidding said the new laws dovetailed with tougher police evasion laws where Tasmania Police could lay charges up to a month after an incident on the basis they reasonably believe someone had offended.

The Tasmanian road toll is 15. compared with 23 at the same time last year after the death of a Lake Leake man on Friday night.