South Australian Consolidated Acts South Australian Consolidated Acts40I—Direction to move vehicle to enable exercise of other powers
(1) An
authorised officer or police officer may, for the purpose of or in connection
with the exercise of other powers under this Act, direct the driver or
operator of a vehicle to move it or cause it to be moved to the nearest
suitable location that is within the prescribed distance and specified by the
officer.
(2) A person commits
an offence if—
(a) the
person is subject to a direction under subsection (1); and
(b) the
person engages in conduct that results in a contravention of the direction.
Penalty:
(a) in
the case of a direction to move the vehicle for the purpose of determining
whether there has been a breach of a mass limit—not less than $5 000 and
not more than $10 000;
(b) in
any other case—$5 000.
(3) A court may not
reduce or mitigate in any way a minimum penalty prescribed by
subsection (2).
(4) In proceedings for
an offence in relation to a contravention of a direction under
subsection (1), it is a defence if the person charged establishes
that—
(a) it
was not possible to move the vehicle concerned because it was broken down; and
(b) the
breakdown occurred for a physical reason beyond the driver’s or
operator’s control; and
(c) the
breakdown could not be readily rectified in a way that would enable the
direction to be complied with within a reasonable time.
(5) In this
section—
"prescribed distance" means a distance (in any direction) within a radius of
30 kilometres of—
(a) the
location of the vehicle when the direction is given; or
(b) any
point along the forward route of the journey, if the direction is given in the
course of a journey of the vehicle;
"suitable location" means a location that the authorised officer or police
officer concerned believes on reasonable grounds to be a suitable location
having regard to any matters the officer considers relevant in the
circumstances.