If facing a road traffic offence, it is essential that you engage expert legal advice at the earliest opportunity. Traffic offences cover a broad range of charges – from more common examples such as careless driving or low-level drink-driving, to very serious and often devastating examples like culpable driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death or serious injury, or the new offences of exposing emergency workers to danger by driving.
No matter how serious the traffic offence is, it will often require a close technical analysis by your legal representatives and other experts engaged by our firm. Our team at Slades & Parsons is best-placed to advance all available defences on your behalf in this complex field of the criminal law.
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Dangerous Driving Causing Serious Injury
More serious traffic offences, such as dangerous driving causing serious injury, demand careful forensic scrutiny from the outset. Individuals facing offences such as this will face lengthy terms of imprisonment if convicted.
Drink and Drug Driving Offences
There are numerous charges which broadly fall under the bracket of drink and drug driving offences. These include:
- Driving whilst exceeding the prescribed concentration of alcohol
- Exceeding the prescribed concentration of alcohol within three hours of driving
- Driving under the influence of alcohol
- Driving whilst exceeding the prescribed concentration of alcohol
- Driving whilst impaired by drugs
- Refusing to undergo preliminary breath-test
- Refusing to undergo a drug impairment test
There are very slight technical variations to each charge. For example, the charge of driving whilst impaired by a drug is a more serious offence than exceeding the prescribed concentration of drug whilst driving. Similarly, the offence of driving under the influence of alcohol is more serious than the offence of driving whilst exceeding the prescribed concentration of alcohol. There are additional procedural steps that the police must take – both in charging a person and in prosecuting a person with these more serious offences. For example, in order for the prosecution to prove that you are guilty of driving whilst impaired by a drug, a formal impairment assessment ought to have been conducted by police. If an assessment has not been undertaken, you have a strong defence to that charge.
The subtle technical differences between these charges can make all the difference in how best to approach your defence. Ultimately, a successfully run technical defence can spare you significant court imposed penalties, including imprisonment, as well as long-term licence disqualification periods.
Case Study - Traffic Offences
Slades & Parsons recently represented a truck-driver charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury. He was driving his truck on a freeway in the morning. Traffic was heavy, and could be described as ‘stop-start’. It was alleged that he had failed to notice that the traffic in front of him had stopped before colliding into three cars in front of him. It was alleged he was travelling at a speed of approximately 70km/hr (under the speed limit) and that he had not braked at any time prior to the collision. There was further evidence from his call charge records and an eye witness that he may have leaned over to his passenger seat to attend to a phone call moments before the collision. The collision tragically caused very serious injuries to one of the drivers of the three cars in front.
This was a hard-fought matter, in which we briefed and instructed an experienced barrister to represent our client at a committal hearing. We were able to challenge the relevance of the evidence of the call charge records, on the basis that his having received a call did not mean that he had answered it, nor that he had been distracted by it. Crucially, we were able to overcome the account of the eye witness, who conceded under cross-examination that our client’s leaning over was consistent with him checking his side mirror whilst changing lanes or viewing the traffic behind his vehicle. The evidence that remained against our client was insufficient to commit him to trial on the serious offence of dangerous driving causing serious injury. Although it was conceded that he had failed to brake in time to avoid the collision, at no point had he exceeded the speed limit. His conduct only amounted to the much less serious summary offence of careless driving, to which our client pleaded guilty. He received a modest financial penalty, and thus avoided a lengthy jail term.
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We can provide more information on traffic offences and help in navigating the legal process.
