What the Tasmanian Liberals will do:

Impound the cars of dangerous drivers and repeat driving offenders, not just hoons.

The Tasmanian Liberals have as policy a Vehicle Impoundment Program. The Vehicle Impoundment Program is designed to deliver significant outcomes in road safety by reducing traffic related offences, particularly crashes, reduce recidivist behaviour associated with bad driving behaviours, and improve public safety. This program is about removing the dangerous weapon from recidivist speeders, drink and drug drivers and sending a clear message that 50 deaths a year on our roads is no longer acceptable.

This policy program addresses the imbalance created by the Labor Government which only impounds the vehicles of drivers committing hooning offences. The Tasmanian Liberals plan is to send a message to all Tasmanian motorists that if they are endangering public safety by their use of a vehicle, immediate and decisive action will be taken by the removal of their vehicle thus minimising the danger this group poses, plus acting as an effective deterrent to others.

This program is aimed at those drivers who are found committing or have been convicted of, alcohol or drug affected driving offences, driving without a valid licence, excessive speeding and unregistered vehicles.

The impoundment program would operate in conjunction with the existing powers of immediate licence suspension/disqualification and the legislative provisions for hooning offences.

The procedure for impoundment would see police seizing the vehicle at the roadside and having it impounded for a minimum of 28 days.

For repeat offences within a three year time frame, the period of impoundment will be increased. Additionally, the courts will be able to impose a 3 month period of confiscation or forfeiture for third and fourth offences within the three year time frame.

The removal and storage of the vehicle would be conducted by a commercial provider, and the owner of the vehicle would be required to pay the associated costs to them to reclaim the vehicle. The current mechanism for appeal to the Commissioner of Police would be retained.

The key to this program initiative is that by denying the driver access to the vehicle the likelihood of continuing to drive is significantly reduced. Licence suspensions alone are not a sufficient deterrent on their own as convicted drivers will continue to drive, commit further traffic offences and be more involved in crashes. Contemporary research in the United States showed that 75 percent of suspended/disqualified drivers continue to drive and that 20 percent of all fatal collisions involved one or more drivers who were unlicensed or driving whilst suspended or disqualified.

This program has been implemented across the United States, Canada, New Zealand and some other Australian jurisdictions. The success of this vehicle based sanction is demonstrated by research which shows from the United States a 50 percent reduction in repeat off ending whilst the vehicle is impounded, and in New Zealand a 38 percent reduction in disqualified driving offences and a 25 percent reduction in unlicensed and disqualified drivers involved in crashes.