Bus Safety Act 2009
The Act was developed as part of the Transport Legislation Review conducted by the Department of Transport between 2004 and 2010 and is aimed at preventing deaths and injuries arising from bus operations in Victoria and establishes a modern "best practice" regulatory framework to assist in maintaining and improving the Victorian bus industry's good safety record.
The Act continued regulatory control over the operation of large buses and introduced safety standards for the small or mini-bus sector which comprises 40% of the Victorian bus fleet.
The Act establishes a regulatory scheme with the following key elements - The Bus Safety Act was developed as a response to growing bus operations and the emergence of a greater safety risks and in recognition of the deficiencies of the previous regulatory scheme.
The former Public Transport Competition Act regime focused exclusively on large buses.
The BSA extended the definition of 'bus' in line with the Australian Design Rules, which define a bus as a passenger vehicle with 10 or more seating positions including the driver.
[12] This means that if a vehicle is built as a bus, subsequent modifications, including reducing the number of seats, will not alter its status under the scheme.
Safety duties apply to all bus services, both commercial and non-commercial, and to all buses regardless of seating capacity.
[18] It seeks to identify the parties who are in a sufficient position of control over risks, in this case to safety, and to allocate responsibility by law accordingly.
The report effectively endorsed Victoria's and the nation's rail safety regime directions and suggested that a similar approach, particularly focusing on performance-based duties, be taken with all road transport.
The BSA seeks to strike a balance between the need to ensure that non commercial bus services are operated safely without requiring onerous requirements and therefore threatening the viability of community services, such as buses provided by local councils, clubs or community organisations.
[25] In addition to safety duties, the requirement to be accredited was continued by the BSA for operators of commercial services which use medium to large buses, as well as local councils which use medium to large buses to provide a local service that is available to the general public.
New probity standards were also introduced by the BSA, with the inclusion of disqualification offences - essentially past criminal convictions which, depending on their seriousness, may disqualify an applicant from obtaining accreditation[26] thereby excluding the person from operating a bus.
Additional effort required in demonstrating safety competence to the regulator, and the additional regulator vigilance involved in accreditation, are reasonably required for commercial and local services that include medium to large buses - those services that are the most visible are spending the most time on the road, carrying the largest number of passengers and usually serving the general public.
In addition, the specific guidance contained in codes of practice can enhance compliance by operators of these services.
The compliance support scheme centres on provisions which enable the appointment of authorised officers, the conferral of coercive powers and the availability of a range of administrative and court-based sanctions.
Comments received from industry, government and other stakeholders resulted in the refinement of the proposal and changes to its design.
The lead speaker in the upper house debate, David Koch MLC, observed that - Lead speaker for the Greens, Colleen Hartland MLC, commented that - The Bus Safety Bill was passed by the Legislative Council on 31 March 2009.
Changes made by the legislation has required mandatory reporting of the results of annual bus safety inspections since February 2011.
Over the five-month period to July 2011, 28% of 13 plus seat buses failed their annual bus safety inspection.
[48] The head of Transport Safety Victoria, Alan Osborne, described the results as "unsettling" and called for everyone involved to shoulder their fair share of responsibility.
