New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ROAD TRANSPORT (SAFETY AND TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT) ACT 1999 - SECT 70

70 Offence of failing to stop and assist after impact causing injury

(1) A person is guilty of an offence if:

(a) a vehicle or horse being driven or ridden by the person on a road or road related area is involved in an impact occasioning the death of, or injury to, another person, and

(b) the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, that the vehicle or horse has been involved in an impact occasioning injury to another person, and

(c) the person fails to stop and give any assistance that may be necessary and that it is in his or her power to give.

Maximum penalty: 30 penalty units or imprisonment for 18 months or both (in the case of a first offence) or 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years or both (in the case of a second or subsequent offence).

(2) For the purposes of this section, the circumstances in which a vehicle is involved in an impact occasioning the death of, or injury to, a person include if the death or injury is occasioned through any of the following:

(a) the vehicle overturning or leaving a road or road related area while the person is being conveyed in or on that vehicle (whether as a passenger or otherwise),

(b) an impact between any object and the vehicle while the person is being conveyed in or on that vehicle (whether as a passenger or otherwise),

(c) an impact between the person and the vehicle,

(d) the impact of the vehicle with another vehicle or an object in, on or near which the person is at the time of the impact,

(e) an impact with anything on, or attached to, the vehicle,

(f) an impact with anything that is in motion through falling from the vehicle,

(g) the person falling from the vehicle, or being thrown or ejected from the vehicle, while being conveyed in or on the vehicle (whether as a passenger or otherwise),

(h) an impact between any object (including the ground) and the person, as a consequence of the person (or any part of the person) being or protruding outside the vehicle, while the person is being conveyed in or on the vehicle (whether as a passenger or otherwise).

(3) For the purposes of this section, a vehicle is also involved in an impact occasioning the death of, or injury to, a person if:

(a) the death or injury is occasioned through the vehicle causing an impact between other vehicles or between another vehicle and any object or person or causing another vehicle to overturn or leave a road or road related area, and

(b) the prosecution proves that the vehicle caused the impact.

(4) In this section, "object" includes an animal, building, structure, earthwork, embankment, gutter, stormwater channel, drain, bridge, culvert, median strip, post or tree.

Note: Similar obligations are imposed on a person by section 52AB of the Crimes Act 1900 in relation to impacts causing death or grievous bodily harm.