Drinking drivers ‘need professional help’

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 17

Drinking drivers ‘need professional help’

PA Wellington Drinking drivers who have caused deaths should not be sent to jail unless they reoffend, the road safety group Parents Against Drunk Drivers says. The group was opposed to imprisonment for drunk drivers unless all other options had been tried, the co-ordinator, Mr Alan Bilham, said. All members of the group have had a child or relative killed in motor accidents involving alcohol. Mr Bilham said in his 25 years of work with alcoholism he found im-

prisohment did not do drinking drivers any good. "If I thought it had a useful, rehabilitative component I would support it. But all it really is is a punishment that satisfies the community," [he said. Drinking I drivers needed professional help. The group believed that for a first offence measures including large fines and confiscation of the motor vehicle, no matter who it belonged to. should be considered. Power for courts to confiscate vehicles existed but it was rarely used. Another measure was loss of licence for longer

periods than currently ordered, with no right to have lit; returned because of work circumstances. All drinking drivers should be sent for alcohol and drug assessment to see if they had an aiddiction problem. If they did they should be compelled to take appropriate treatment Probation supervision should extend from two to four years in some cases, he said. ! ;! j . Imprisonment should exist as a final option for drinking drivers who [reoffended and flouted the court’s rulings numerous times. - i