Tassie hoons risk 21 years in the slammer

THE Tasmanian government is sending out a strong message that hooning will not be tolerated on its roads with a revision of dangerous driving penalties that has increased the harshest punishment from a two-year prison term to a whopping 21 years.

Under the new laws, dangerous driving offences no longer fall under the Traffic Act but under the fiercer Criminal Code, allowing the worst offenders to be hit with far harder punishments for the most serious driving offenses – including hooning.

With the new laws now in place, dangerous driving is an indictable offence in Tasmania and will be heard in the Supreme Court with defendants given the right to a jury. As a result of the change, the most serious dangerous driving offenses are categorised with other indictable offences including robbery and murder.

Announcing the changes, Tasmania’s acting attorney-general Matthew Groom said the dramatic increase in penalty severity matched the seriousness of deliberate dangerous driving and would act as a genuine deterrent.

“I am very pleased the Government’s legislation to crack down on dangerous driving has today passed the Legislative Council,” he said.

“Dangerous driving is a scourge that can result in lives being lost and families being torn apart, and these strong laws will send the right message that it will not be tolerated on our roads.

“The offence of dangerous driving will now move from the Traffic Act 1925 to the Criminal Code Act 1924, resulting in the maximum penalty for a first offence being increased from two years to 21 years imprisonment”.

The maximum sentence can be increased by another year for incidents where death was caused by negligent driving and an additional six months for causing grievous bodily harm.

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