{"id":705199,"date":"2026-05-30T23:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705199\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T23:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:22:24","slug":"the-bread-and-butter-of-a-local-court-more-than-20-names-on-the-traffic-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705199\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘bread and butter’ of a local court: More than 20 names on the traffic list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland’s road toll is moving in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

In a local court south of Brisbane, one magistrate is hoping a harrowing video with actors depicting graphic car accidents \u2014 delivered alongside sobering statistics \u2014 will make a difference.<\/p>\n

Warning: The following story contains staged scenes which may distress.<\/p>\n

\"A A woman cries out “it was an accident”.(Supplied: Transport Accident Commission Victoria)<\/p>\n

On a screen in a darkened courtroom, a woman cries “it was an accident”.<\/p>\n

\"A A depiction of a car crash.(Supplied: Transport Accident Commission Victoria)<\/p>\n

Cars slam into each other in rapid succession.<\/p>\n

A child screams as a car slams into him on a suburban street.<\/p>\n

\"A A graphic depiction of a dead body being bagged.(Supplied: Transport Accident Commission Victoria)<\/p>\n

Another body is bagged up.<\/p>\n

By the time the video stops playing, at least one woman is crying in the Cleveland Magistrates Court’s public gallery, where the traffic list is in session.<\/p>\n

In this court, Magistrate Deborah Vasta takes a somewhat unique approach to sentencing.<\/p>\n

\"court<\/p>\n

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re here on a Monday morning \u2026 we call it the traffic call-over \u2026 so you’re normally here for something to do with cars,” she tells the group.<\/p>\n

“Usually drink driving, drug driving, maybe dangerous driving, hooning, driving without a licence.<\/p>\n

“Part of the sentencing process is that I’m supposed to give each of you a lecture.”<\/p>\n

But instead, the five-minute, slightly dated, video is played.<\/p>\n

Before hitting play, she offers those in the gallery a chance to leave if they’re concerned it will be re-traumatising.<\/p>\n

\"man The video shows the aftermath of car crashes.(Supplied: Transport Accident Commission Victoria)\"woman A woman is seen holding another after a car crash.(Supplied: Transport Accident Commission Victoria)\" The video is dated, but harrowing.(Supplied: Transport Accident Commission Victoria)<\/p>\n

When the lights come back on and Magistrate Vasta pulls up the latest road toll statistics in Queensland, for a brief period, the court feels more like a classroom.<\/p>\n

And there’s no denying the numbers are harrowing.<\/p>\n

By this particular Monday in May, 111 people have died on the state’s roads since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n

That’s 24 more than the same period last year.<\/p>\n

Twenty-nine people have died on motorbikes, something Magistrate Vasta is at pains to point out.<\/p>\n

“One of our defendants \u2026 someone who stood exactly there \u2026 was killed last week on a motorbike,” she says.<\/p>\n

“All of these are preventable \u2026 speed, distraction, drugs, alcohol, seatbelts, etc.<\/p>\n

“Who are the four or five people walking around right now who are going to be ticked off as just a statistic this time next week?”\"A A 40-year-old man died in hospital after suffering extensive burns in a car crash in Townsville.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)\"Close A 41-year-old Coomera woman died in a crash on the Gold Coast.(ABC News: Glenn Mullane)\"A A Mackay teenager died in a two-car collision in Mackay.(ABC Tropical North: Danielle Jesser)The churn<\/p>\n

This week, more than 20 people are called before the traffic court, which sits until the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Many are there, along with their legal representatives, simply to seek adjournments. Others will be sentenced.<\/p>\n

Stress levels differ, with some appearing remarkably relaxed \u2014 even calm.<\/p>\n

\"Maroon<\/p>\n

One of the most serious matters heard by the court is a 22-year-old who has pleaded guilty to several counts of dangerous driving in relation to hooning incidents two years ago.<\/p>\n

Footage of the nights in question is played to the court. Each video shows a large group of people gathered at a car park under the cover of darkness to watch a ute do burnouts.<\/p>\n

The police prosecutor urges jail time.<\/p>\n

Instead, the man is sentenced to 200 hours of community service and a wholly suspended term of imprisonment.<\/p>\n

As his mum, partner and another man sit in support of him in the public gallery, he’s warned “everybody in the community is sick to death of seeing hooners”.<\/p>\n

His licence is also suspended for three-and-a-half-years.<\/p>\n

\"man An artist’s impression of one of the defendants brought before Ms Vasta in Cleveland Magistrates Court earlier this month.(ABC News: Sharon Gordon)\"Mullet An artist’s impression of a defendant being sentenced by Ms Vasta.(ABC News: Sharon Gordon)<\/p>\n

Over several hours, matters of drink driving, drug driving and driving while not authorised to do so are heard by the court.<\/p>\n

Some of those matters are quickly resolved, and they’re given a fine and are quickly able to leave.<\/p>\n

Others are both fined and have their licences disqualified due to drink driving \u2014 something Magistrate Vasta is quick to warn them about.<\/p>\n

“Even if I only disqualify you for one month and you’re very good for three weeks and six days and 10 hours, and it’s the very last day \u2014 it’s too bad, we don’t get a choice about it \u2014 it’s mandatory that we disqualify you for two years,” she says.<\/p>\n

The circumstances of defendants vary.<\/p>\n

\"exterior<\/p>\n

There’s a woman in her 50s, who the court hears has no criminal history but returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.298 after ending up in a serious car accident on a Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

It’s lucky no-one was killed, the prosecutor tells the court.<\/p>\n

The woman’s given a probation order and a six-month driving suspension.<\/p>\n

Then there’s a man who has pleaded guilty to driving with a drug in his system. The court hears it was cannabis and he’s a medicinal cannabis user.<\/p>\n

He’s given a one-month driving suspension.<\/p>\n

Another man also pleads guilty to driving with cannabis in his system. Again he tells the court he’s a medicinal user.<\/p>\n

He’s disqualified from driving for a month but issued with a work licence, so he can continue to get himself to and from his job.<\/p>\n

Another man is fined $2,000 for drink driving and issued a work licence for two months while his licence is suspended. No conviction is recorded. He blew 0.099, and is warned there would have been much more serious ramifications if he’d returned a result even a “smidgen” higher.<\/p>\n

\"An David Heilpern sat on the bench in New South Wales for more than two decades.(Four Corners)’Bread and butter’<\/p>\n

David Heilpern knows that churn only too well.<\/p>\n

He sat on the bench as a magistrate in New South Wales for 22 years, and is now the dean of law at Southern Cross University on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

Professor Heilpern described traffic matters as the “bread and butter” of local courts, saying they made up the majority of people’s interactions with the courts.<\/p>\n

\"long<\/p>\n

He said there were a few reasons for bringing someone to court.<\/p>\n

Mostly, it was about appropriate punishment.<\/p>\n

That includes the “embarrassment, the public shaming, the time off work, [and] the expenditure on legal fees”.<\/p>\n

“All of that has a much more sobering impact, and reduces reoffending in the future.”<\/p>\n

He acknowledged it could become tricky not to get bogged down in the sheer number of traffic matters he was seeing.<\/p>\n

But, at the same time, he said it was important to remember that for each defendant appearing in court, this was “the biggest case \u2026 and the most important thing happening in their life”.<\/p>\n

\"cleveland Some driving offences see people brought before the court.(ABC News)\"police A police prosecutor is present in the courtroom to present the facts.\u00a0(ABC News)\"cleveland Ms Vasta generally presides over the traffic court on Monday mornings at Cleveland Magistrates Court.(ABC News)<\/p>\n

Professor Heilpern believed an approach like Magistrate Vasta’s in Cleveland Magistrates Court likely did have merit.<\/p>\n

But he said it was difficult to quantify its impact without proper analysis.<\/p>\n

“I’m old enough to remember that everyone thought that if you took young offenders into adult prisons and showed them how horrible it was, that it would stop their offending,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“And it didn’t work.<\/p>\n

“What we need is an evaluation to really assess whether it does work or not \u2026 but it certainly can’t hurt, can it?”<\/p>\n

He thinks the state government should be responsible for funding that, saying it would not be “that hard” to divert some funding from expensive road safety measures to do so.<\/p>\n

\"Cars A former magistrate says traffic matters are the way the majority of people interact with the local courts.(ABC News:\u00a0Chris Gillette)\"Traffic Traffic offences like speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs and dangerous driving can lead to a person being brought before a court.(ABC News: Alfred Beales)\"Traffic Brisbane’s roads are getting increasingly busy.(ABC News: Christopher Gillette)No statistics on traffic offences recidivism in Queensland<\/p>\n

There aren’t readily available statistics about how many people sentenced for traffic offences reoffend, and trying to get some proved an exercise in futility.<\/p>\n

Queensland Police said these questions would be better directed to the state’s justice department, but the department said it did not hold “reportable recidivism data” that covered traffic offences.<\/p>\n

The Department of Transport and Main Roads was also asked for statistics on recidivism but was unable to provide them.<\/p>\n

The state government, when contacted for comment, said it was committed to “making Queensland safer” by giving the courts and police “the tools and resources” needed.<\/p>\n

“We’re delivering more police to the front line and refocusing policing on core duties, including road safety, so those who break the law on our roads can be held accountable,” a spokesperson for Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said.<\/p>\n

Professor Heilpern said that from his perspective, as well as from the literature he had read over the years, there were generally two classes of offenders.<\/p>\n

“There are your first-time offenders who are not going to repeat \u2026 they’re mortified at their own actions,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“They’ve had some sort of life crisis or misjudgement or finally got caught \u2026 [and] it’s a real wake-up call and they don’t re-offend.<\/p>\n

“The second class is the repeat offenders who have underlying issues.”<\/p>\n

Those offenders, Professor Heilpern said, were the ones who got themselves trapped in cycles of accruing fines and points, driving while disqualified and ending up in and out of jail.<\/p>\n

The same people who keep the churn going in courtrooms just like Magistrate Vasta’s.<\/p>\n

Credits<\/p>\n

Illustrations: Sharon Gordon<\/a><\/p>\n

Video: Transport Accident Commission Victoria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland’s road toll is moving in the wrong direction. In a local court south of Brisbane, one magistrate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,343104,651,343103,34155,44,94,701,40205,97686,1191],"class_list":["post-705199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bayside","tag-brisbane","tag-cleveland-magistrates-court","tag-drink-driving","tag-news","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-sentencing","tag-speeding","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}