270(1)
270(2)
Riding motor bike without wearing helmet or with passenger not wearing helmet
Passenger on motor bike failing to wear helmet
Both offences are the same $ value but only 270(1) is a 3 demerit point offence.
To understand the South Australian helmet regulations the following Acts are required reading
Motor Vehicles Act 1959
The Motor Vehicles Regulations Act
The Road Traffic Act 1961
South Australia Australian Road Rules
The Road Traffic (Miscellaneous) Regulations Act
The Road Traffic (Road Rules Ancillary and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations
Primary Act
Demerit Points
Primary Act
Rule 270
Offences and Standards
Rule 38
Offence descriptions and meanings have become distorted over time. Originally the descriptions and details were included in the road rules or traffic acts and so the meanings were clear.
The volume of offences and the number of officials who needed access to the information increased and so the penalties and descriptions were moved to separate legislation and the practice of using "short descriptions" in the penalty legislation began.
This now means the infringement notices as issued may mean other than what they state. The offence and penalty legislation have clauses which state in effect that the short description means the same as the long description contained in the regulations.
Notes
Motorcycle helmet offences are not a category in the Australian Bureau of Statistics system unlike bicycle helmets.
South Australia like many States fail to recognise separate proscribed offences with differing levels of penalty are needed or that visor offences should be a minor defect notice rather than a fine as per car windscreen tinting.
Use of the defect system means the ACCC can be alerted to retailers selling visors not complying to standards.