Inadequate Penalty

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28930, 25 June 1959, Page 12

Inadequate Penalty

A fine cf £ 5 and the suspension of a driving licence for six months seemed hardly an adequate penalty for a youth convicted in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch of his twenty-fifth traffic offence. The actual breach on which he was dealt with, going against the traffic lights, was made more serious by his overtaking a stationary vehicle on the wrong side. This, however, is of little importance compared with his previous appalling record, which makes it difficult to understand how he had a current licence to suspend. In such circumstances the offender is either careless of traffic rules or incapable of observing them. In either case he should be kept off the road, in the interests of other users, for a much longer period than six months. If the Courts do not have sufficient

power in this direction they should ask for it; but if, as the act suggests, they have discretion then they should use it. Our roads cannot be safe while such irresponsible drivers are allowed on them.