A TEAFFIC COURT?

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 10

A TEAFFIC COURT?

DEALING WITH MOTOR CASES

It is suggested by one who has a considerable knowledge of traffic that much of the difficulty and delay in dealing with offenders against motor regulations and city traffic bylaws could be avoided by the setting up of a Traffic Court, to deal solely "with traffic offences. It is pointed out that thero has been a tremendous increase in motor traffic, as in the regulations necessary to control it, and that if such a Court were instituted, it could be presided over by a geatleman with sufficient experience of all likely traffic situations and problems, who would probably assess the value of evidence on that subject more readily than one to whom traffic cases are only a small part of his duties. There is, in his opinion, enough work to keep such a Court sitting in Wellington four days a week. One of the greatest difficulties in the way of successful prosecutions ,is securing the services of witnesses, who know that they may have to spend the greater part of perhaps a busy day awaiting their call to the witness box, whereas, with such a Court specially constituted for tho purpose, more speedy action would be possible. Certain traffic officials in each quarter of the town could be made J.P.s, for instance, and could take declarations more or less on tho spot, and allow the witnesses to go about their business. It is not that people are always reluctant to give evidonce, though thero are many who will do a good deal to avoid it, but that the average man cannot afford the time to see justice done in such minor matters as bylaws under the present process. Offences against traffic regulations where nothing more than a breach of accepted rules was concerned could, it is asserted be quite efficiently dealt with on less cumbrous lines than tho present Court procedure, and in instances where civil actions for damages, wero probable, or tho graver charge of manslaughter might arise, the weightier matters could go on to the ordinary Courts. Offenders themselves, especially travellers, would welcome a speedier procedure.