Australian Capital Territory Current Acts

HEAVY VEHICLE NATIONAL LAW (ACT) - SECT 521

    (1)     An authorised officer may, using necessary and reasonable help and force, enter and search a heavy vehicle for investigation purposes if the officer reasonably believes—

        (a)     the vehicle is being, or has been, used to commit an offence against this Law; or

        (b)     the vehicle, or a thing in the vehicle, may provide evidence of an offence against this Law that is being, or has been, committed; or

        (c)     the vehicle has been or may have been involved in an incident involving the death of, or injury to, a person or damage to property.

    (2)     The authorised officer may form the necessary belief—

        (a)     during or after an inspection of the heavy vehicle under Part 9.2 or section 520; or

        (b)     independently of an inspection of the heavy vehicle under Part 9.2 or section 520.

    (3)     Without limiting subsection (1), the authorised officer may—

        (a)     search any part of the heavy vehicle or any part of its equipment or load for evidence of an offence against this Law; and

        (b)     inspect, examine or film any part of the heavy vehicle or any part of its equipment or load; and

        (c)     without limiting paragraph (b), look for, check the details of, or film a registration item, label or other thing required to be displayed on the heavy vehicle under an Australian road law; and

        (d)     search for and inspect a document, device or other thing in the heavy vehicle; and

        (e)     take an extract from a document, device or other thing in the heavy vehicle, including, for example—

              (i)     by taking a copy of, or an extract from, a readout or other data obtained from a device or other thing in the vehicle; or

              (ii)     by accessing and downloading information from a device or other thing in the vehicle; and

Example of device or other thing—

an intelligent transport system

        (f)     copy a document in the heavy vehicle, or take a document in the heavy vehicle somewhere else to copy it; and

Examples of documents for the purposes of paragraphs (e) and (f)—

              •     a document required to be kept in the vehicle under this Law or a heavy vehicle accreditation

              •     transport documentation

              •     journey documentation

              •     a document the authorised officer reasonably believes provides, or may provide on further inspection, evidence of an offence against this Law

        (g)     produce an image or writing in or near the vehicle from an electronic document in the vehicle or, if it is not practicable to produce the image or writing in or near the vehicle, take a thing containing the electronic document somewhere else to produce the image or writing; and

        (h)     take the persons, equipment or materials the officer reasonably requires into or onto the heavy vehicle.

    (4)     If the authorised officer takes a document from the heavy vehicle to copy it, the document must be copied and returned to the vehicle as soon as practicable.

    (5)     If the authorised officer takes from the heavy vehicle a thing containing an electronic document to produce an image or writing from the document, the image or writing must be produced, and the thing must be returned to the vehicle, as soon as practicable.

    (6)     This section does not authorise an authorised officer to exercise a power under this section in relation to an incident that involves the death of, or injury to, a person unless the authorised officer is a police officer or is acting under the direction of a police officer.

    (7)     The power to search under this section does not include a power to search a person.