Call for tougher drink-drive laws

Press, 16 December 1985, Page 13

Call for tougher drink-drive laws

PA New Plymouth Drunken drivers one day will be disqualified from driving for life, said Judge Dalmer in the District Court at New Plymouth. “Legislation does not allow it, but I think the time will come when that will occur,” he said.

“If I had the power I would give serious consideration to disqualifying you for life,” he told Vainu’u

Tuigaleava, aged 36, of New Plymouth, when sentencing him on charges of excess alcohol while driving and speeding at New Plymouth on October 2. Tuigaleava, who pleaded guilty and who now faces disqualification for four years, had appeared seven times on drunken driving charges since 1979 and on two charges of failing to

stop after accidents. “You are not a fit person to be in charge of a driver’s licence,” the judge said. There was no place for drunken driving in New Zealand and it was time the community thought again about its responsibilities. The road toll was already nearing 700 and the only thing to lower it was a change in social attitudes which some people seemed reluctant to make. “Maximum penalty of three months’ jail for drunken driving is, in my view, ludicrous and long overdue for an increase,” he said. “Similarly the maximum fine of $l5OO is out of touch with reality. “Unless penalties are increased the public will simply regard drunken driving as a minor offence and pay no particular regard to it.”

The defendant was sentenced to seven months’ periodic detention and had been disqualified from driving for three years in October for drunken driving. The Judge said he was considering a jail sentence but because of a good periodic detention report he added one more month’s periodic detention and disqualified him for a year.

Both sentences were cumulative, meaning a total from October 21 of eight months periodic detention and disqualification from driving for four years.