MOTORIST FINED

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 135, 5 December 1930, Page 4

MOTORIST FINED

. ..... » ■—| — ■■ . In the Magistrate's Court tb-duy Eric Rceyes pleaded guilty to a charge of being intoxicated while' in charge of a motorl car. He was fined £40 and his driving licence was cancelled for three years by Mr. B. Page, S.M.: On behalf of the accused "Miy.C; Evans-Scott contended thatthe offence was merely a technical" one. He had had a certain amount of drink that night, which, in ordinary times, would not have affected him. When the accused left the house where he had been drinking he was quite sober, but the fresh air affected' him arid to his surprise the defendant realised that he was not quite sober. On reaching the Thorndon end of the Hutt road he pulled over to his correct side and stopped the car so that he could recover. He had pulled up in the safest spot possible, being only a car's width from the drain on the side of the road, and it was in such a position that the police did not move it when they took the accused to the station. The object of the Act, counsel submitted, was to protect the public from the drunken motorist—that was the man who was drunk and would not recognise the fact, and persisted in driving his car. Reeves was sufficiently sober to appreciate his position, to realise the possibility of danger, and to play for safety.