INTOXICATED DRIVERS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29008, 24 September 1959, Page 15

INTOXICATED DRIVERS

Change In Law Supported

Fourteen organisations have made it clear that they would support a proposal to amend the existing law relating to intoxicated persons found asleep in motor vehicles.

They gave their views in letters sent to the Christchurch Metropolitan Road Safety Committee, which held its monthly meeting last evening. In another four letters two were undecided, the Education Board mqde no comment, and the Christchurch City Council was against the proposal. The proposal was that intoxicated persons asleep in a car but not driving and with the ignition switched off should not be guilty of a criminal offence. On a show of hands, the committee decided to receive the letters and forward them to the Road Safety Council in Wellington. A motion by Mr B. H. Paton that the committee should also support the proposal was not seconded.

Mr R. W. Smith, speaking for the Canterbury Drivers’ Union, one of the organisations which was undecided, said the union did not consider the proposal went far enough. His organisation considered that the intoxicated drivers should be “locked up and treated as ordinary drunks. That at least would ensure the safety of others,’’ he said.

To a proposal that the authorities should be given power to confiscate the keys of intoxicated persons in cars. Cr. H. E. Denton said it was only an errant fool who carried one key. He said he felt that an amendment would weaken the existing law.

“Drinking is a voluntary action. I am not a teetotaller, and I feel that if any man is stupid enough to enter a hotel and get a skinful of drink, he should not be exempt from prosecution. I do not, for the life of me, see why we should condone a driver who gets a bit of dutch courage with drink and endangers the lives of others,” said Mr Denton. Mr Paton said there was an attitude in the country that a change in the law was imminent. “We must consider the effect this will have on the safety of drivers,” he said, “It is usual now for intoxicated drivers who realise they are unfit to drive to think: ‘lf I sit here I am in foi it. I may as well move on and take the risk’.”