Road Safety Act 1986

If the Act or legislative instrument that creates an offence that may be committed by the driver or person in charge of a motor vehicle or trailer, or any other Act or legislative instrument, expressly states that the offence is an operator onus offence for the purposes of this Part, then (except as otherwise provided by this Part) the person who at the time of the offence is the responsible person in relation to the motor vehicle or trailer is guilty of the offence as if that person were the driver or person in charge (as the case requires) of the motor vehicle or trailer at that time.

Nothing in subsection (1) affects the liability of the person actually driving, or in charge of, as the case requires, the motor vehicle or trailer at the time of the offence.

The operator of a motor vehicle or trailer only ceases to be the responsible person in relation to the motor vehicle or trailer if another person is the responsible person in relation to that vehicle or trailer by force of section 84BE or 84BF.

A natural person who by force of this section is guilty of an offence is liable to the same penalties and subject to the same consequences to which the person would have been liable and subject had the person been the driver, or in charge, as the case requires, of the motor vehicle or trailer at the time of the offence.

A body corporate that is guilty of an offence by force of this section is liable to—

if the provision of the Act or legislative instrument creating the offence applies a higher penalty to a body corporate found guilty of the offence—that higher penalty; or

in any other case—the same penalty as that to which the person who was the driver, or in charge, as the case requires, of the motor vehicle or trailer at the time of the offence would be liable.