Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Hi Folks,

As of the 01 March 2011 the fine for driving on a closed or restricted road in the NT has been increased from $50 to $13,300.00. So if you are planning a 4WD trip out here you would be well advised to check the NT governments road condition website http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/roadreport/o ... sp#CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

bloody hell mav inflation is a bugger of a thing

[alternative Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close alternative]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

Its only increasing inline with grocerys, power and wages :shock:

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

I think appropriate considering the stupidity shown in the recent QLD floods where people lost their lives crossing closed roads and many many more who required other people to put their lives at risk saving them etc. Whilst not always flood related "road closed" usually means something. I do agree they should provide a UHF channel or phone number to verify ie Condamine currently has road closed signs but is open to 4WD traffic.

A slap doesn't seem to enhance the memory maybe something more will

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

And that price is without GST. No only kinding around. How do they come up with that figure! The NT government needs to explain this to the people of Australia, do they want a tourism industry?

I don't see a problem with it

[Yota Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Yota]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

And that price is without GST. No only kinding around. How do they come up with that figure! The NT government needs to explain this to the people of Australia, do they want a tourism industry?

I don't see a problem with it

I agree maybe the $13,300 will go a bit closer to the repair costs of the closed roads then the $50 did. Some people just dont get it, the road is closed for a reason, if you think your special or think your exempt than you deserve the fine. If you disagree with the rise you probably deserve the fine aswell.

[Schaffer Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Schaffer]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

Can't recall what it is here in South Australia but it has been expensive for quite a while and I believe you are fined per tyre (including spares on rear door or roof or even a camper). Charging people a big slug isn't a bad thing when you take into account the cost and regularity of maintenance. Imagine if that is a road that you use regularly (as you live in the region) and someone trashes it but the road isn't due or not funds are available to repair for 12 months...

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

I thought it was $1000/wheel in SA?

[Schaffer Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Schaffer]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

I thought it was $1000/wheel in SA?

Sounds bout right but two spares put you at $6k. If you are an 18 wheeler with spares and doubles then it gets really interesting.

[Davros Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Davros]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

Having previously lived in a rural area for many years, I agree the fines should better reflect the potential damage done and associated repair costs.
I used to live adjacent to the Shoalhaven River in NSW. Weekenders would routinely ignore road closures during the wet, and churn up the road. :evil:
They would try to cross the river at a causeway down the road from me, and then come up to my place wanting me to get them out with one of the tractors.
I ended up charging $150.00 cash for each extraction. Some who wouldn't pay were left to thier own devices.
Our local kids footy team benefited from the money raised. One year I recall I raised nearly $2000.00 for the club. It was my way of getting the message across to the morons that would ignore the signs, and put themselves and others at risk, not to mention the damage they did to our road.
I think the abuse that I sometimes copped was worth it, to get the message across.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

For those that think that nobody will be enforcing this new fine then think again. Th NT government have gone on record to say that it was not worth their while enforcing the old $50 fine as prosecuting people cost the government more money than the fine was worth but now the fine makes it worthwhile to prosecute and they will be doing it.

Here in the centre there is a big ranger presence so if you do decide to use a closed road there is a very high chance of being caught.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

Davros wrote
I ended up charging $150.00 cash for each extraction.

You were to cheap we saw this sign up the cape last year!



So long as the person closing the roads is doing so for legitimate reasons then i don't have an issue with the fines. Might stop a few of the idiots. :wink:

Cheers Andrew

[Davros Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Davros]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

You were to cheap

Bear in mind, this was over twenty years ago. I had an old tin sign down by the causeway, warning the idiots before they attempted the crossing.
If the road wasn't closed, I used to pull the punters out that had slipped off the side (no charge). It was just the right thing to do, and broke up the monotony of spraying weeds, fencing etc etc.
It was just the blatant idiots that copped the fee.

[geograzza Member Find all posts View Profile Close geograzza]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

I agree maybe the $13,300 will go a bit closer to the repair costs of the closed roads then the $50 did. Some people just dont get it, the road is closed for a reason, if you think your special or think your exempt than you deserve the fine. If you disagree with the rise you probably deserve the fine aswell.

It depends how they apply it. Here in QLD the fine is $600. An aquaintance of mine out Dalby way was stung in the recent floods, but when you look at the circumstances it was just revenue raising.

The sign was put up on the highway immediately past the last side street before the flooded creek crossing. But this was still several km from where the water had actually gone over the road. The area between the sign and the water was unaffected. This bloke's farm was inside the closed area, and he drove from his farm to a neighbour's farm also within the closed area. The whole way he was on dry bitumen that had never been wet. He is challenging the fine, but has to take it to court which will cost him more money. The road should have had "road closed ahead" signage placed at the last side street, and the actual closure should have been immediately prior to the problem, not several km back, which meant that all the farmers on that stretch broke the law if they were to leave their properties.

There were also cases in the Dalby & Toowoomba district of people being fined for driving through very shallow water to help evacuate people, and even one of the tankers carrying emergency water to the town was fined for driving over a road that was technically closed. After a few people had come to grief for stupidly crossing very flooded crossings, it was like a mass hysteria had hit the police department every time a puddle appeared.

One morning I had to take a very long detour to get to work, because for about 10m, there was about a couple of cm of slow-flowing water across the road. This happens at this spot almost every time it rains and no-one takes any notice - it is just the bad design of the road and guttering means that the water picks that spot to cross from one gutter to the other. But in the excitement during the floods the police closed the road and threatened me with a fine if I proceeded - nevermind that the water wasn't deep enough to wet anything other than the rubber of my tyres, nevermind the fact that there had been the same amount of water there every day for the last week, nevermind that even a barina could handle that amount of water, let alone the Prado.

I can understand closing roads where there is a real risk of road damage or danger to drivers, and I also believe roads should be closed to the gawkers, but they need to exercise some common sense. They need to assess where the closure should be, and need to assess whether the road deserves a complete closure, or remains open for high vehicles. In the recent flooding, I didn't see that sort of assessment taking place - it seemed to be blanket bans on entire highways because there was a trickle of water several km down the road.

[tassie tiger Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close tassie tiger]

Re: Fine Increase For Driving on Closed Roads in the NT.

Fines are decided by how many penalty units apply and the value of the penalty unit.

The Act of law will normally state the penalty for the offence.

The penalty would be something like

"Up to 400 penalty points".

The value of a penalty point is determined by the govt. Currently they are around the $100 to $150 depending on the state.

An 'authorised officer' (Cop, Ranger, Council Ranger etc) can issue a fine but only to the value in the regulations which is referred to in the Act. These are normally on between 1/2 and 5 penalty units.

So the cops catch you they can give you a fine the amount in the regulations. In the case of closed road it may be 5 penalty units or $500.00. This is what normally happens. But if the driver is a real ......... or has caused huge damage, the SES called out to save them or so on then the matter can reach court in which case the court can impose anything up to the maximum penalty units. So say 400 x $100 to a sweet $40,000.

An example is the Dog Control Act in NSW where the normal fine for a dog attacking someone is something like $800. If the dog attacks again then I think the fine by a court can be $64,000 or similar (may be a bit off but the fine would make your hair stand up).

So normally it wouldnt be that big but there are some cases where kids have been disfigured that it would be appropriate. No gaol time, just twenty years of pain repaying it!


EDIT: That may be confusing, what I was trying to say is the maximum fine would rarely if ever be given but is there for extremely stupid people.