Traffic Offences

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 16

Traffic Offences

The hearing of traffic cases is taking an ever-increas-ing proportion of the time of magistrates in New Zealand courts. This is the reason, no doubt, for the suggestion made by the Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) that tribunals of traffic commissioners should be set up to deal with traffic offences which do not involve imprisonment. Mr Hanan told the national conference of magistrates last week that the senior magistrate in Auckland had assured him that the Auckland magistrates would “give it a go”, but he added that there was little prospect of legislation this session to sanction the proposed system. There is much to be said for relieving magistrates of the greater part of the burden at present imposed on them by traffic charges; but any proposals to remove most of these charges from the jurisdiction of the magistrates must be examined very carefully. The Minister has said that the proposed scheme would provide for appeals from the decisions of traffic commissioners. Appeals against conviction and penalty would be heard in the Magistrate’s Court, thus maintaining the present rights—though adding to the expense—of aggrieved motorists . There is, however, a real danger that the establishment of tribunals of traffic commissioners might dull the public conscience towards traffic offences. Offences which do not involve imprisonment include failing to give way to the right, failing to give way when making a right-hand turn, failing to give way at a pedestrian crossing, and most other breaches of the road code. It is not generally realised that each of these offences carries an optional penalty of suspension of the driver’s licence. A flagrant breach of any of the rules of the road may justify a more serious charge, such as driving in a dangerous manner, and a conviction on this charge does make the offender liable for imprisonment. But there must be border-line cases where the prosecution, though suspecting a serious offence, can only bring evidence to justify a minor charge.

To remove all such cases from the jurisdiction •f the magistrate’s court would be unwise. The traffic commissioners should be free to decline jurisdiction in cases which they consider should be heard before a magistrate. With such safeguards, the establishment of tribunals of traffic commissioners could usefully relieve the magistrate’s courts of the task of meting out monetary penalties for petty breaches road code.