The new U license category for supercar owners in South Australia will come into effect on December 1, 2024, requiring an additional education. At the same time, the state parliament significantly increased the penalties for dangerous driving.
The reason for the introduction of a separate category of rights for owners of supercars in South Australia was a high-profile accident in 2019 in the suburbs of Adelaide involving a Lamborghini Huracan driver who lost control and hit two young girls: 15-year-old Sophia Naismith died and her friend was seriously injured . The culprit of the accident last summer was acquitted of the murder charge, as the judge found that there was no hard evidence that the driver caused the accident intentionally. Under pressure from the public, the state parliament set to work, which resulted in a new category of driver's licenses for owners of supercars and, in general, tougher liability for those responsible for serious accidents.
The new category of rights is marked with the letter U — this is the first letter of the abbreviation UHPV, which stands for Ultra High Powered Vehicle and is translated into Russian as «heavy duty vehicles», that is, supercars. The criterion for being a supercar is very simple: a specific power of at least 276 kW (375 hp) per ton and a gross weight of no more than 4.5 tons. Motorcycles and buses do not fall under category U.
It is curious that neither the state of South Australia nor Australia as a whole are large consumers of supercars, and of the local manufacturers, only Brabham has cars of this class. Specifically, in South Australia, according to CarExpert magazine, there are only about 270 car owners who will have to attend to obtaining new rights. To do this, firstly, you need to have the rights of one of the current categories (in Australia these are C, LR, MR, HR, HC and MC), and secondly, you need to go through additional online training, in which applicants for category U rights will explain all the risks of driving supercars and the need to use electronic driver assistants. Unfortunately, there is no talk of taking an additional driving course in the new law.
Together with the introduction of a new category of rights, responsibility for a number of offenses for all drivers in South Australia is being tightened. In particular, intentional and unjustified disabling of ABS, ESP, traction control and AEB (automatic emergency braking system) will be punishable by a fine of up to 5,000 Australian dollars (318,000 rubles in translation at the current exchange rate). Justified cases of disabling such systems include driving on a dirt road and the need to rescue a stuck car.
The maximum liability for causing death by negligence as a result of an accident increases from 12 months to 7 years in prison, while driving a UHPV class vehicle with disabled driver assists listed in the law will be considered an aggravating circumstance, as well as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
South Australian legislative precedent will certainly be of interest to the authorities of other states and other countries.
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