By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Police Minister Lisa Neville has foreshadowed tougher penalties and more roadside testing to tackle the growing scourge of drug-driving.
Drug-driving is a factor in more than half of Victoria’s deaths on the road, she told reporters on 30 April.
“There’s no question in my mind that we have a growing issue with ice use on our roads.”
Ms Neville noted the “tragic consequences” in which a Cranbourne truck driver was charged with culpable driving for allegedly killing four police officers on 22 April.
She said the government would need to review aspects of trucking, including driving hours but also the broader issue of drug-driving “settings” to “change behaviour on our roads”.
Comparatively, alcohol was now a “small part” in deaths and injuries on the road, she said.
The government had recently raised drug-driving penalties to match drink-driving. It also increased roadside drug tests to 150,000 a year.
Further “significant” uplifts in testing were required, Ms Neville said..
The government was also looking at a new definition of “impairment” – which needs to be proved to jail drug-drivers.
Currently, police were not administering the ‘impairment test’ on roadsides because it was too time-consuming, Ms Neville said.
In the future, impairment may be simply assumed if drugs are detected in a driver’s system, Ms Neville said.
“That’s what we need to do to fix this.”
To this end, work was being done with Monash University Accident Research Centre towards understanding the nature of drug-driving and impairment.
Ms Neville hoped to introduce the changes within 12 months.
