Drivers Warned On Offences

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32194, 13 January 1970, Page 1

Drivers Warned On Offences

(New Zealand Press Association! DUNEDIN, January 12. Persons who appeared before the Court on charges of driving while under the influence of drink, or other driving offences involving risk to life or limb, could expect stiffer penalties in the future, Mr J. D. Murray, S.M., said today.

Mr Murray said that one aspect of the penalty which would receive particular attention,, in addition to. imprisonment or monet a r y penalty, was the period of disqualification.

A minimum of three years was prescribed for this offence, said the Magistrate. But it was only a minimum, and it would be increased in appropriate cases.

Mr Murray said it was a simple fact that liquor was Involved in far too high a proportion of fatal and in-jury-producing accidents in a year in which the road toll had apparently equalled the record of two years ago. “From the Bench I have said over and over again that the offence of driving while under the influence of drink to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of a vehicle is much too prevalent,” he said. “It may be that the frequently used, but misleading

term ‘drunken driving 1 Is partly to blame. Drunkenness has little to do with the matter. The criterion is to have proper control of a vehicle.” Mr Murray said it was disturbing to note that the incidence of this offence had continued to rise in spite of legislation intended to reduce it.

“I refer, of course, to breath tests and compulsory blood testing," he said. “One might have expected that here, as in England, there would have been a sharp drop after the legislation. But this has not been so. “As some of us expected, 10 o’clock closing produced an increase. More recently we have begun to see more 20-year-olds involved in matters of this kind.”

Against this general background, the Magistrate said, it was clear that the Court would have to give serious consideration to the imposition of sterner penalties. Of course, he added, the penalty in any particular case would have to be appropriate to the circumstances of that case.