South Australian Numbered Acts South Australian Numbered Acts19—Amendment of section 45—Careless driving
Section 45—after its present contents (now to be designated as
subsection (1)) insert:
(2) If a court
convicts a person of an offence against this section that is an aggravated
offence, the following provisions apply:
(a) the
maximum penalty for the offence is 12 months imprisonment; and
(b) the
court must order that the person be disqualified from holding or obtaining a
driver's licence for such period, being not less than 6 months, as the court
thinks fit; and
(c) the
disqualification prescribed by paragraph (b) cannot be reduced or
mitigated in any way or be substituted by any other penalty or sentence.
(3) For the purposes
of this section, an aggravated offence is—
(a) an
offence that caused the death of, or serious harm to, a person; or
(b) an
offence committed in any of the following circumstances:
(i)
the offender committed the offence in the course of
attempting to escape pursuit by a member of the police force;
(ii)
the offender was, at the time of the offence, driving a
vehicle knowing that he or she was disqualified, under the law of this State
or another State or Territory of the Commonwealth, from holding or obtaining a
driver's licence or that his or her licence was suspended by notice given
under this Act;
(iii)
the offender committed the offence while there was
present in his or her blood a concentration of .08 grams or more of
alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood;
(iv)
the offender was, at the time of the offence, driving a
vehicle in contravention of section 45A or 47.
(4) If a person is
charged with an aggravated offence against this section, the circumstances
alleged to aggravate the offence must be stated in the instrument of charge.
(5) In this
section—
"serious harm" means—
(a) harm
that endangers, or is likely to endanger, a person's life; or
(b) harm
that consists of, or is likely to result in, loss of, or serious and
protracted impairment of, a part of the body or a physical or mental function;
or
(c) harm
that consists of, or is likely to result in, serious disfigurement.