Offences and Penalties

There are many laws governing drivers, riders and pedestrians. If you breach the road rules or your licence conditions, you could incur demerit points, have to pay a fine or face more serious consequences like losing your licence.

Legislation

Most driving offences are covered by the Road Traffic Act 1961 (RTA) and in Regulations made under this Act such as the Australian Road Rules (ARR) and the Road Traffic (Road Rules – Ancillary and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2014 (RT RR Regs). In addition, the Motor Vehicles Act 1959 (MVA) regulates (amongst other things) the issuing of driver's licences, the registration of motor vehicles and compulsory third party insurance.

Hoon driving provisions are covered by the Criminal Law (Clamping, Impounding and Forfeiture of Vehicles) Act 2007 and the Criminal Law (Clamping, Impounding and Forfeiture of Vehicles) Regulations 2007, although the range of offences for which a car may be clamped or impounded are much broader. Serious offences (otherwise known as indictable offences) such as causing death or injury by reckless or dangerous driving are contained in the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935.

Demerit Points

Drivers incur demerit points for certain traffic offences. The number of demerit points incurred depends on the offence and how likely it is to cause a crash.

Demerit points are incurred whether the offence is committed in South Australia or interstate.

If you hold a full licence and accumulate:

• 6 or more demerit points, a warning notice is sent to you (unless you have an interstate address) warning that you are close to being disqualified from driving
• 12 to 15 demerit points, you lose your right to drive for three months
• 16 to 20 demerit points, you lose your right to drive for four months
• more than 20 demerit points, you lose your right to drive for five months.

If you hold a Learner's Permit or Provisional Licence and you accumulate 4 or more demerit points, you could lose your right to drive for at least six months.

If you hold a Probationary licence and accumulate 2 or more demerit points, you could lose your right to drive for at least six months.

Find out how to check your demerits and driving history.

Fines

If you commit a traffic offence, you may be issued with an expiation notice and have to pay a fine. An expiation notice can be issued for a variety of reasons. However, drivers are most likely to be issued one for a breach of traffic laws, for example a speeding offence. A Victims of crime levy also applies to most traffic offences, however it does not apply to expiation notices (e.g. parking fines) issued by local councils or any other authorities listed under the Victims of Crime (Fund and Levy) Regulations 2003.

If you receive an expiation notice in the mail and you were not the driver at the time of the offence, you may complete a statutory declaration nominating the driver. An expiation notice will then be re-issued to the nominated driver.

To contest the offence, you may choose not to pay the fine and elect to have the matter heard in court.

If you have an overdue fine, you may have your driver's licence suspended or be refused vehicle registration, regardless of whether the offence is traffic related or not. The Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit may request the Registrar of Motor Vehicles not to transact any business with you and that your driver's licence be suspended until the fine is paid.

More information

Read more about other enforcement actions that can be applied when fines are outstanding.

Read more about how you can pay a fine. See www.fines.sa.gov.au for details.

Losing your licence (disqualification)

The following offences may result in you being disqualified from driving:

• accumulating 12 or more demerit points
• accumulating 4 or more demerit points on your learner's permit or provisional licence
• accumulating 2 or more demerit points on your probationary licence
• breaching a good behaviour condition on your licence
• breaching a safer driver agreement on your provisional licence
• breaching a condition of your learner's permit, provisional licence or probationary licence
• any drug driving offence
• drink driving – exceeding blood alcohol concentration
• failing to pay outstanding fines
• being convicted in court of a graffiti offence.

You will lose your licence immediately if you are caught drink driving (.08 or higher), drug driving, refusing or failing to comply with a breath test, blood test, drug test, driving dangerously or speeding excessively (i.e. 45 km/h or more over the relevant speed limit).

Graffiti Offences

You can also be disqualified from driving if you are convicted in court of a graffiti-related offence.

You may be disqualified from driving for one to six months.

Your vehicle's registration may also be suspended and your vehicle impounded.

What happens if you are disqualified from driving?

If you are disqualified from driving you will receive a notice of disqualification in the mail (unless it is an immediate loss of licence for speeding excessively, drink driving, drug driving, driving dangerously or refusing or failing to comply with a breath test, blood test or drug test or other court imposed disqualification).

If you are disqualified from driving as a result of the accumulation of demerit points, the disqualification starts 28 days after a formal notice is sent to you, providing you formally acknowledge receipt of the notice within this time frame. If you are already disqualified, any new disqualification will start immediately after the existing disqualification ends.

Where the disqualification is due to the accumulation of 12 or more demerit points you may be provided with the option of either being disqualified for the period stated in the notice or electing to be of 'good behaviour' (see below) for 12 months.

You must acknowledge receipt of a disqualification notice in person and pay a fee. Failure to do this will result in the notice being served on you personally and a higher fee is payable.

If you cannot be served a notice of disqualification personally, you will be prohibited from transacting any business under the Motor Vehicles Act, such as renewing your vehicle registration.

If you are disqualified from driving, your licence will be suspended and, in some cases, cancelled. If your licence is cancelled, you will not receive a refund of the period remaining on the licence.

Good behaviour option

You may be eligible to apply for a 12-month good behaviour option in lieu of serving the demerit point disqualification. Information about this option is provided on the disqualification notice.

If you are eligible to make an application to enter into a 'good behaviour' option, you must notify the Registrar of Motor Vehicles within 28 days of the date of issue on the notice at an Australia Post (EPOS) outlet or a Service SA customer service centre.

Once the good behaviour condition is accepted, you will be able to continue to drive, but your licence will be subject to the condition that you do not incur two or more demerit points during the good behaviour period. If you incur two or more points you will be disqualified for twice the original disqualification period (with no right of appeal or further good behaviour option).

All demerit points that resulted in the issue of the notice of disqualification, and any demerit points for offences committed before the offence that brought the total number of demerit points to 12 or more, are discounted when the disqualification or good behaviour period commences.

Any demerit points for offences committed after the offence that resulted in the notice of disqualification being issued are not discounted and may contribute to a further notice.

Safer Driver Agreement

If you hold a provisional licence, and you are disqualified for accumulating four or more demerit points or contravening a prescribed condition, you may choose to enter into a Safer Driver Agreement in lieu of serving the six-month disqualification period—unless you committed a serious disqualification offence.

If you are eligible and you agree to the Safer Driver Agreement, you must notify the Registrar of Motor Vehicles within 28 days of the date of issue on the notice at an Australia Post (EPOS) outlet or a Service SA customer service centre.

If you breach the Safer Driver Agreement conditions, you will be disqualified for 12 months (twice the original disqualification period) which you must serve. You will not be eligible to choose a Safer Driver Agreement if you are disqualified again within the next five years.

Alcohol interlock

If you commit a serious drink-driving offence, you will have an alcohol interlock (breath-testing device) fitted to your vehicle for a period of time at the end of the licence disqualification period.

Read more about alcohol and drug driving.

Wheel clamping and vehicle impounding

Wheel clamping, impounding or forfeiture of a vehicle may occur in addition to any other penalty that may apply to offences such as dangerous driving, careless driving, excessive speed, drink and drug driving, driving while disqualified, and causing the vehicle to make excessive noise or smoke, amongst others.

In such cases, the police are authorised to:

• immediately wheel clamp or impound an offender's vehicle for up to 28 days
• apply to the courts to extend that period to 6 months
• wheel-clamp or impound any vehicle owned by the alleged offender, not only the one in which the offence was committed.

The Courts also have discretion to impose harsher penalties upon repeat offenders, including permanent vehicle seizure.

A car is impounded when secured at premises under the authority of the Commissioner of Police and the Sheriff. Forfeited vehicles may be taken from hoon drivers and sold by the state of South Australia.

Read more about hoon driving and the offences for which vehicles may be wheel-clamped, impounded or forfeited.

Graffiti Offences

Your vehicle can also be impounded if you are convicted in court of a graffiti-related offence.

You can also be disqualified from driving and have your vehicle's registration suspended.

A trial of e-scooters (electric scooters) has been approved to take place in the Adelaide CBD. Learn more about the trial and the rules.

Summary of offences and penalties

The table below provides a summary of select road safety related offences that attract demerit points as well as the expiation fees applicable for each offence.

Other more serious traffic offences, which are not expiable and must be heard by a court, but still attract demerit points, are also included.

A complete list of the expiation fees and demerit points that apply to road traffic as well as registration and licensing offences are set out in:

• Road Traffic (Miscellaneous) Regulations 2014 (RT Regs) [Schedule 9 - Expiation Fees]
• Motor Vehicles Regulations 2010 (MV Regs) [Schedule 4 - Demerit Points] and [Schedule 5 – Expiation Fees]

Effective 1 July 2023:

* A Victims of Crime levy ($99) applies in addition to the expiation fees shown below.

Body Corporate Fee^#

^# A body corporate fee applies to a business that fails to nominate the driver responsible for a camera-detected speeding and/or red-light offence. A body corporate that successfully nominates the responsible driver will not incur the body corporate fee.

Speeding

These speeding offences also apply to exceeding the 25 km/h speed limit when passing a school bus or an emergency service speed zone. (RTA S82(1) RTA S83(1)(a)).

Novice drivers and riders

The table below shows some of the penalties that apply only to holders of a Learner's Permit or Provisional Licence.

Effective 1 July 2023:

* A Victims of Crime levy ($99) applies in addition to the expiation fees shown below.

** The penalty for contravening one of your licence conditions may apply in addition to the penalty for the offence itself (e.g. in the case of speeding or drink driving).

Penalties for Drink and Drug Driving

Find information on changes to the drug driving and dangerous driving laws from 13 February 2023 on the Alcohol and drugs page.

Severe penalties apply to drivers who commit drink and drug driving offences in South Australia. Penalties may include fines, licence disqualification (including immediate loss of licence at the roadside), demerit points and even imprisonment in some cases.

These penalties are designed to send a clear message to drivers about the severity of drinking or taking drugs and operating a motor vehicle and highlight the danger these drivers present to themselves and the safety of other road users.

The penalty table below outlines the current drink and drug driving penalties in South Australia.

Drink driving penalties in South Australia

Drug driving penalties in South Australia

Notes:

+ denotes an offence to which “immediate loss of licence” applies under the Road Traffic Act 1961.

^ denotes an offence to which “clamping, impounding and forfeiture of a vehicle” is available under the Criminal Law (Clamping, Impounding and Forfeiture of Vehicles) Act 2007. Note that these sanctions are not available where an expiation notice is issued for the offence.

# denotes an offence to which an “alcohol interlock” must be fitted to their vehicle at the end of their licence disqualification under s81E of the Motor Vehicles Act 1959.

Previous offences – Where a person commits a drink driving offence and has committed any of the offences listed in the tables above within the previous five years, that person is dealt with as a second offender, whether or not both offences are in the same category. Drug driving offences are also considered. Where the previous offence is a first offence of exceeding the prescribed concentration of alcohol of 0.05–.079 (i.e. category 1 BAC offence), the period is three years.

Dependency assessment* – An alcohol or drug dependency assessment may also be required, depending on the number of previous drink or drug driving offences committed.

An alcohol or drug dependency assessment is required where a person has expiated or been convicted of one of the following offences which involved a child aged under 16 in the vehicle at the time of the offence:

• Category 2 or Category 3 offence
• Drug driving offence
• Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs; or
• Refusing or failing to undertake an alcohol or drug screening test.

Also, any drink and drug drivers required to undertake a dependency assessment will have the option to complete an alcohol or drug dependency treatment program. Drivers must show they are not dependent in order to regain their driver's licence.

*Note: drivers required to enter the Mandatory Alcohol Interlock Scheme are exempt from undertaking a dependency assessment.