DRINK AND DRIVING

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 256, 25 July 1936, Page 8

DRINK AND DRIVING

Again yesterday, in his reply to a deputation from the New Zealand Alliance, the Minister of Transport was praiseworthily emphatic in declaring for greater safety on our roads. There is provision in the law as it now stands for dealing with the intoxicated motorist, although by the time he is dealt with he has frequently contributed to the human slaughter which Mr. Semple deplores. The New Zealand Alliance asks for amending legislation to protect the community against the driving dangers of so-called “subintoxication.” “This is not part of the policy of the alliance to restrict the consumption of liquor,” said Mr. F. C. Spratt. To which lead Mr. Semple responded with characteristic vigour, “A man is entitled to get drunk in New Zealand as long as he goes to bed or plants himself in some place where he can do no harm to others; but he is not entitled to drive a car or otherwise become a menace to life, and as far as it is possible to stop him I am going to do it.” There is nothing shilly-shallying about a statement like this, and the Minister need have no fear that the people generally will accuse him of fanaticism.

Some of the amendments proposed by the deputation might be of doubtful practicability. There is argument enough now in courts of law on the question of intoxication. Argument on the question of sub-intoxication would be almost endless. Nevertheless, our roads are now so populous, and modern motor vehicles so sensitive to acceleration and so fast that no community ought to permit them to be handled by people who are not in the fullest possession of all their faculties. Fatigue, illness and intoxication are all attended, normally, by a dulling of the senses, and therefore all in greater or less degree, are accessories before the fact to the murders committed on the King’s highway. If the New Zealand Alliance or anyone else can devise safeguards for the lives of people who use the roads innocently and correctly, the New Zealand public will be no less grateful than Mr. Semple. Meanwhile he has hinted that he may be able to do something when the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill is before the Upper House; and the relationship of liquor and motoring is to be considered at the Safety Conference to be called shortly.