A BILL
To
Enclosure No: 4
Amend the Road Traffic Ordinance.
Enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof.
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Road Traffic (Amendment) (No. 2) Short title. Ordinance 1986.
2.
Section 41 of the principal Ordinance is amended by deleting subsection (2). Amendment of
3.
Section 69 of the principal Ordinance is amended—
(a) in subsection (1)(a), by deleting ", other than a first offence of driving at motor vehicle on a road at a speed exceeding a speed limit imposed by any enactment, or a second such offence the date whereof falls more than 3 years after the date of the first offence"; and
(b) in subsection (2), by deleting paragraph (b) and substituting the following- "(b) imposed in respect of any other offence specified in subsection (1) shall be a disqualification from holding or obtaining any driving licence.".
4.
Section 70 of the principal Ordinance is amended-
(a) by deleting subsection (1);
(b) in subsection (2), by deleting "for which he may be disqualified" and
substituting the following-
"involving obligatory or discretionary disqualification"; and
(c) in subsections (3) and (4), by deleting “(1) or”.
5. Section 72(1) of the principal Ordinance is amended by deleting "(1) or”.
Explanatory Memorandum
The amendments in clauses 2 and 3 of this Bill relate to disqualification of a
person from holding or obtaining a driving licence.
2. Clause 2 abolishes the requirement that at present exists for a court to impose obligatory disqualification, for a period of not less than 12 months, for a third or subsequent speeding conviction under section 41 within 3 years. The Road Traffic (Driving-offence Points) Ordinance (Chapter 375) provides for disqualification of a person who incurs 15 driving-offence points or more on successive convictions of any of the offences mentioned in the Schedule to that Ordinance (a speeding offence is one such offence), and that Ordinance will continue to apply.
3. The courts will have a discretionary power of disqualification on convicting a person for a speeding offence, under section 69(1)(a) of the Ordinance, as amended by clause 3(a).
4. The effect of the amendment to section 69(2)(b) in clause 3(b) is that, if a disqualification is imposed on a person in exercise of the court's discretionary power of disqualification (other than for an offence relating to the obligations of taxi drivers or an offence relating to prescribed taxi fares), that person is to be disqualified from holding or obtaining any type of driving licence.
5. The effect of the amendments to section 70 in clause 4 is that the power to order a person to take a driving test will be discretionary. At present section 70(1) makes a retest obligatory in cases where a person is disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 6 months or more. The amendment of section 72(1) in clause 5 is consequential.
6. The Bill has no Public Service staffing or financial implications.
section 41. (Cap. 374.)
Amendment of section 69.
Amendment of section 70.
Amendment of section 72.