M.O.T. avoids testing women?

Press, 7 June 1980, Page 11

M.O.T. avoids testing women?

,PA Wellington Women are getting away with drinking and driving while their male counterparts are being caught and convicted, according to the director of the National Society on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Mr R. Johnston). It could be because traffic officers did not like to ask women to take the necessary tests, he said. He finds it hard to believe that women can make up 50 per cent of the 55,000 alcoholics in New Zealand and yet only make up a fraction of the . number of people being picked up for drinking and driving. Even if there were less

women on the roads than men it still did not account for the size of the discrepancy, he said. Figures taken for the first few months of 1978 caused him to think about the difference between male and female offenders. These showed that 760 males were picked up during that period but only 33 females. “While I accept that the :otal vehicle miles driven by women would be somewhat less than males I still think that there is an under-representation of women,” Mr Johnston said. “I attribute this to a number of things but one is the diffidence of the monitoring authorities to apprehend female drivers.”