The mighty traveller - is it legal in any state?

[Franco Cozzo]

I'm struggling to find information about alcohol consumption while driving, at least for VIC.

What's the rules about having alcohol while driving? When we go out as a crew we've generally got beers for the passengers which get consumed in transit to destination, I can't find any information on the legalities of this in regards to passengers drinking while on the move.

Also with the driver, can they drink while on the move as long as they stay under .05?

[Tassie f100]

I,m pretty sure you will find it is actually illegal to drink anything whilst driving.That includes water,soft drink,milk drinks etc.It is also illegal to eat whilst driving.Don,t think it affects passengers as long as they don,t toss the empties out along the road

[73 4V XB]

This relates to the driver.
https://www.harperfinch.com.au/blog/...cohol-driving/
This relates to passengers.
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safe...nd-road-safety
Yes your mates can drink while your driving.

[aussiblue]

The answer is here: https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-adv...in-a-car-69472

The answer is both yes and no, depending on what state or territory you're in. When we look at the legality of alcohol in cars we all too often concentrate our attention on the driver. However, in some states of Australia it is illegal for passengers to consume alcohol in a car – even when the car is parked by the side of the road and switched off!

If you visit Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Western Australia or Queensland, you need to be aware that it is firstly illegal for anyone to drink alcohol in the car, driver or not. And secondly, it is important to note these states can also convict you of drink driving while you are sleeping in the back of the car after a big night out.

If you’re in Western Australia the government changed the laws around street drinking back in 1988 with the Liquor Control Act to make it illegal to drink alcohol in a street or road, even when parked. This is not the same as being charged with drink driving, however it is still illegal.

Queensland has particularly hard laws around drink driving, where there have been convictions of drink driving made against a person sleeping in their car after a heavy night. The issue is that Queensland finds you “in charge” of your vehicle if you have your car keys on you, or in easy reach (say, sitting on the dashboard, or in the glove box).

As drink driving is a strict liability charge the matter of whether you intended to drive is not important – if you are over the limit, you are therefore guilty. Lawyers in Queensland have suggested handing car keys off to sober people, or not sitting in (or sleeping in) your car while waiting for someone to pick you up, as ways of negating this issue.

For residents of NSW, South Australia, and Victoria there are no pieces of legislation or explicit mentions in law of it being illegal to have an open vessel of alcohol in your car, which means passengers should be able to drink booze while someone else drives (within reason). Of course, the inference remains that the person driving is in full control of the vehicle and remains under the blood alcohol limit for their licence.

If you are a driver supervising a Learner you should be aware you cannot drink alcohol while you are the supervising driver. If you are sitting in the front seat beside the learner, that means you are the supervisor, and therefore your blood alcohol limit must be zero for South Aussies, or 0.05 in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA.

We found the following links to this topic online. In NSW, and also the RMS. Western Australia’s regulations. More information on Queensland’s laws.

This article is not intended as legal advice. You should check with your local road authority to verify the information written here is suitable to your situation before driving in this manner.
​

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by 73 4V XB

This relates to the driver.
https://www.harperfinch.com.au/blog/...cohol-driving/
This relates to passengers.
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safe...nd-road-safety
Yes your mates can drink while your driving.

Thanks bud

No for driver
Yes for passengers

At least for Mexico.

[hayseed]

Franco, Is there any reference to Drug & Alcohol use in your workplace EBA..????
If they have a Zero tolerance written into the EBA You've all signed It (& agreed to be bound by It)

you're All screwed, I would Think..

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by hayseed

Franco, Is there any reference to Drug & Alcohol use in your workplace EBA..????
If they have a Zero tolerance written into the EBA You've all signed It (& agreed to be bound by It)

you're All screwed, I would Think..

No EBA, just standard workplace award - if they ever cracked down on that stuff they'd need to find an entire workforce

[Rallye Sport]

Illegal to have an open bottle of alcohol in a vehicle in WA.
Not that it stops anyone and they don't seem to hide it like they do phones.

[LG17]

Car trips, particularly in the country areas used to measured by stubbies and not time.
Many trips were a 6 pack.

[lra]

"Lawyers in Queensland have suggested handing car keys off to sober people, or not sitting in (or sleeping in) your car while waiting for someone to pick you up, as ways of negating this issue."

So, if you suspect you are over the limit, lock your car, go to sleep on a park bench or in the gutter, get mugged, end up in hospital with your car stolen. But at least you will have satisfied the legal requirements. Far out !!

[ozpacman]

Consuming liquor whilst driving is not permitted in Qld.

From the Transport Operations (Road Use Management—Road Rules) Regulation 2009

300A Drinking liquor while driving
(1) The following persons must not drink liquor—
(a) the driver of a vehicle while driving the vehicle;
(b) a supervisor of a learner while the learner is driving a
motor vehicle under the direction of the supervisor.
Maximum penalty—20 penalty units.
(2) In this section—
learner see the Act, section 79AA(4).
supervisor, of a learner, means a person—
(a) with whom a learner is authorised to drive under the
person’s direction under the Transport Operations
(Road Use Management—Driver Licensing) Regulation
2010; or
(b) who purports to be a person mentioned in paragraph (a).

[ozpacman]

Originally Posted by lra

"Lawyers in Queensland have suggested handing car keys off to sober people, or not sitting in (or sleeping in) your car while waiting for someone to pick you up, as ways of negating this issue."

So, if you suspect you are over the limit, lock your car, go to sleep on a park bench or in the gutter, get mugged, end up in hospital with your car stolen. But at least you will have satisfied the legal requirements. Far out !!

There's a lot of misinformation and urban mythology around this one as well. The story usually starts with "A bloke at work's cousin...", or similar.

Whilst the above lawyer's advice is certainly sound, one doesn't actually need to go quite that far.

If you've had a few and you make the wise decision not to drive home, then whatever you do, don't go to sleep in the driver's seat with your keys in the ignition. That'll earn you an 'In charge' court appearance every time.

Hop in the back seat, put your keys under the seat or somewhere safe and you'll be fine. The general rule of thumb that police apply is whether you have the 'present ability to operate the vehicle.'

If you're sozzled in the driver's seat with your keys in the ignition, then you have that ability.

If you're asleep in the back seat and the keys are under the seat/in the glove box/console or whatever, then you obviously don't have that present ability.

It's common sense really. Otherwise every grey nomad asleep in their motor home after enjoying a bottle of red with dinner would be getting charged.

Hope this clarifies things a little.

Russ.

[aussiblue]

I have to say despite the legality or otherwise is it really a good idea. At the very least it is sending a message to the constabulary that this is a vehicle that's worth a closer look and a random breath test. And there's always that one passenger who will do the wrong thing and put everyone at risk. It's not something I've ever done or allowed my passengers to do even when it was legal and younger and sillier.

[janddbone]

I often enjoy a long neck on the road, although it is illegal in Victoria.
http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/v...6125/s49b.html

South Australia is the only state where it is legal, another reason to move there.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by janddbone

South Australia is the only state where it is legal, another reason to move there.

That's because we are, and always have been, a free settlement...unlike those other states which are, and always will be, penal settlements.

[aussiblue]

That's because we are, and always have been, a free settlement...unlike those other states which are, and always will be, penal settlements.

WRONG in regard to WA. Western Australia was founded as a free settlement. In the Goldrushes of the 1850's it did ask for the UK to send convicts to provide replacement labour for that lost to the goldrushes but it was despite the convicts that were sent, not a "penal settlement" as such. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Australia . See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convic...tern_Australia

"In April 1848, Charles Fitzgerald, Governor of Western Australia, petitioned Britain to send convicts to his state because of labor shortages. Britain rejected sending fixed term convicts, but offered to send first offenders in the final years of their terms. Most convicts in Western Australia spent very little time in prison. Those who were stationed at Fremantle were housed in the Convict Establishment, the colony's convict prison, and misbehaviour was punished by stints there. The majority, however, were stationed in other parts of the colony. Although there was no convict assignment in Western Australia, there was a great demand for public infrastructure throughout the colony, so that many convicts were stationed in remote areas. Initially, most offenders were set to work creating infrastructure for the convict system, including the construction of the Convict Establishment itself.

We were also unlike nearly other states not part of the old NSW and was for a time both independent from the UK and the rest of Australia . And don't start me on the myth of Captain Cook being the first European or even the first Englishman to discover Australia, as it was was discovered must earlier on the west coast by both Europeans (e.g. Dirk Hartog) and Englishmen (William Dampier).

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

WRONG! Western Australia was founded as a free settlement. In the Goldrushes it did ask for the UK to send convicts to provide labour lost to the goldfield but it was not a "penal settlement".

RIGHT!, because I didn't say every other state was a penal settlement, nor did I say SA was the only free settled state now did I...

Mind you, Perth is like the most isolated city on the planet so that's probably punishment enough..

[Citroënbender]

Perth’s the most south-eastern suburb of Cape Town, isn’t it?

Also, our seventh state was always freemen.

[aussiblue]

RIGHT!, because I didn't say every other state was a penal settlement, nor did I say SA was the only free settled state now did I...

But it would have been lest eastern states centric to perhaps say "That's because we are, and always have been, like WA, a free settlement...unlike those other states which are, and always will be, penal settlements.

[aussiblue]

Also, our seventh state was always freemen.

Is that the NT, the ACT or NZ? And probably no state has always been freemen if we consider the incarceration of the indigenous population that always seemingly went with European settlement.

[Citroënbender]

I was stirring the Kiwis. ;-) (Note, the Treaty of Waitangi happened a long time before any of the official conciliatory moves here.)

[BA-XT]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

That's because we are, and always have been, a free settlement...unlike those other states which are, and always will be, penal settlements.

I was going to say something but we all know it's not just not your world famous wines that you keep in barrels over there!!

We love adelaide though... been over a few times but made the mistake of visiting in summer last year. That was ridiculous.

Also you lot sound different... definately more posh and better spoken compared to us Victorians. Actually in 2016 we stayed in Glenelg and a guy asked me where the nearest bottle shop was and we could instantly tell we both weren't from adelaide and that at 7pm on a Tuesday no bottle shops were likely to be open

[aussiblue]

I also love Adelaide; it always strikes me as a somewhat boganised version of Perth. Very friendly and nice restaurants but Glenelg must be the only place in Australia where you can still see teenagers in Valiants with fluffy dice doing bog lap circuits of the street at night with stubbies in hand. Not even in Rockingham or Gosnells can we still see this in WA. Perhaps it should be respected as a uniquely surviving otherwise lost aspect of 70's Australian youth culture.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by BA-XT

Also you lot sound different... definately more posh and better spoken compared to us Victorians. Actually in 2016 we stayed in Glenelg and a guy asked me where the nearest bottle shop was and we could instantly tell we both weren't from adelaide and that at 7pm on a Tuesday no bottle shops were likely to be open

Certainly do, I was in their lovely establishment known as 'The Firm' on North Terrace on Easter Sunday (or one of those Easter weekend days) 2018.

Talking to two lovely lasses for about 15 mins, then I asked them where in the UK they're from.

And they've gone, errrrr we're from Adelaide?

[Franco Cozzo]

Adelaide cops a lot of crap but its actually very easy to drive around and there's really nice and cheap food on O'Connell Street in North Adelaide, I always stay there when I visit, its nice being able to walk out your apartment having choice of about a bazillion cafes and restaurants where mains are sub $40 unlike Melbourne.

Tony Tomatoes there does one of the best Pizza's I've ever had.

Casino leaves a bit to be desired though

Yopu can tell the difference in 'accent' between people from Adelaide and Perth compared to Melbourne and Sydney, they sound different.

[BA-XT]

March is apparently madness.... when we came in May a few years ago it was wonderful.... Victor Harbour, Handolf, and up to the Botanical gardens up at mount Lofty summit were just amazing.

Very easy to get around coming out of Glenelg and heading out to day trips. Traffic was so quit compared to Melbourne.

We stayed at Semaphore Beach last January.... was just way way too hot. Was 47 on the day we left!

Also coming into adelaide with still slightly warped rotors certainly isn't fun with the large downhill sections.... lovely beautiful drive though. Just got to get those rotors machined next time!

[XByoot]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Adelaide cops a lot of crap but its actually very easy to drive around and there's really nice and cheap food on O'Connell Street in North Adelaide, I always stay there when I visit, its nice being able to walk out your apartment having choice of about a bazillion cafes and restaurants where mains are sub $40 unlike Melbourne.

Tony Tomatoes there does one of the best Pizza's I've ever had.

Casino leaves a bit to be desired though

Yopu can tell the difference in 'accent' between people from Adelaide and Perth compared to Melbourne and Sydney, they sound different.

Not sure if it’s still on but head down to the Grace Emily pub. Monday nite open mike night with “Billy Bob and the BBQ boys” top musos . Finishes up pretty late, half time snags out the back. Used to be a top night.

[BENT_8]

Adelaide really is just as its portrayed, a big country town which can appear to be stuck in the 70/80's.
The best part is its easy to get around and virtually impossible to get lost in as its bordered by ocean to the west and south, the Mt Lofty ranges to the east, and if you find yourself too far north you'll end up in one of those blue plastic barrels that BA-XT mentioned, at which point getting lost will be the least of your problems...

[Trevor 57]

deleted

[Cav]

Yap-Hoon