Lawyers Say One Offence Involved

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30172, 2 July 1963, Page 14

Lawyers Say One Offence Involved

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 1. The section of the Transport Act which has been criticised by counsel and Mr Stewart Hardy, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Pukekohe as implying two offences, involves, in the opinion of two Wellington lawyers, only one offence. The act, which came into force on May 1, expands the section in the earlier Transport Act dealing with the offence of being in charge of a motor-vehicle while under the influence of drink or drugs.

lit was reworded so that a person undbr the influence of drink or drugs who is in charge of a vehicle but not driving, or driving so as to cause injury or death, commits an offence if he fails when required, to give the ignition keys to a constable or traffic officer.

Section 59 of the act says: “Every person commits an offence who (a) while under the influence of drink or a drug to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the vehicle, is in charge of a motor-vehicle on any road, but not so as

to be liable for conviction under [section* dealing with driving] and (b) having been required by a constable or traffic officer to deliver up all ignition or other keys of the vehicle that are in his possession, has failed to comply with that requirement." Mr Stewart Hardy said he agreed with Mr B. Q. Webb, of Pukekohe, that the drafting of the new act was so clumsy that the old "in Charge” offence remained and a new one—failing to give up the keys—had been introduced.

The opinion was given to “‘The Press” in Wellington that the word “and” between parts (a) and (b) implied that the two parts operate in conjunction and that, in any case, part (b) could not be applied separately as it refers to “the vehicle” or part (a). It would not be intended that there was an offence if a motorist refused to give up the keys of a car if, in the first place, he was not considered to be incapable of driving. Explaining the intention of section 59, the Minister of Transport (Mr McAlpine) said in his second reading speech on the bill in Parliament last year: "I have striven for many years, fruitlessly, to give the man who has had two or three drinks too many an opportunity to sleep it off in his car.

“Previously it has been an offence for a person to be intoxicated in a stationary car. Such people have been charged in the courts with being drunk in charge of a car.

“From now on. if a driver in such a situation decides he has had more than he should and that he would be wiser in his own interests and in the interests of the public to sleep it off. and he hands over the keys of his car if he is asked to do so, he will not be guilty of any offence.”

Tonight, Mr McAlpine said he had not suspected that the act left his intentions m doubt. He would obtain a report on the matter from the Transport Department.