Conmittee Discusses Driving And Drinking

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31226, 25 November 1966, Page 19

Conmittee Discusses Driving And Drinking

It was fficult to get across: to the pjlic the message about thdanger of drinking and drivithe Christchurch Metropol' n Road Safetv Commits agreed on Wednes- 1 day even:

Accord ’ to figures pub-' lished re, itly 60 per cent of those kil J in motor accidents hat een drinking, said Mr D. B. ch. Too many people who ove drank too' much, he lid. He felt the Transportlepartmenfs hands were too td for one of the i biggest mnces on the road. ■ Mr J. If Doody said taxi drivers wotl generally agree with Mr Rn. From his own I experiences knew that tool many drift particularly i early on a today morning I appeared t®e under the influence of ink. The majtty of fatal acci-j dents hapaed between 11 a m. and »a.m., although l there was jt as much traf-! fic then assuring the day, j said Mr D<iy. The factor! which caua the accidents, | he would s| without hesita-I tion, was dxk. Sergeant 11. McLauchlan said courtshd the medical profession ■ expressed concern at the pblem. In recent weeks he hi stationed him-

self outside hotels at 6.15 p.m. but he had not seen one person he could have arrested for driving under the influence as far as enforcement was concerned.

The district officer of the Transport Department (Mr D. L. Hogan) said the really drunk person could be easily detected—it was the person who drank and looked all right until an emergency occurred who caused the trouble.

A further difficulty was when an accident occurred there was often a head injury involved and a doctor had great difficulty in deciding whether the driver was drunk or suffering from the head injury, said Inspector C. McKenzie. There was a need to dispel the idea some people had that they were better drivers after they had had a few drinks, said Mr Hogan. The committee agreed to ask members of the medical profession to meet it next year to discuss the problem.