WOMAN DRIVER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1938, Page 11

WOMAN DRIVER

FINED £10

INTOXICATION CHARGE

The opinion that the main purpose of having a person charged with being intoxicated in charge of -a car'examined by a doctor was not to certify as to intoxication, but to ascertain that there was not an affliction present which might produce similar symptoms to those of the consumption of alcohol, was expressed by Mr. W. C. Harley, S.M., during the hearing of a case against a woman driver in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Jessie Hardie, a married woman, aged 37, pleaded not guilty to being intoxicated in charge of a car in Jervois Quay. The accused, who was stated to have had a previous conviction for a similar offence, was represented by Mr. R. Hardie Boys. SubInspector D. A. McLean prosecuted. "One has to be very careful as to what one says from the Bench," said Mr. Harley, "but without giving the slightest offence to anybody I am inclined to believe that the evidence of any constable as to drunkenness or sobrie/ is probably of more assistance to me than the evidence of a doctor. The doctor's evidence I regard at present as more or less conclusive that the defendant is not suffering from any other ailment which might have produced symptoms similar to those of drunkenness. ... lam afraid, however, that one cannot pick on symptoms which give rise to a belief of insobriety. I have heard it tried time and time again to give the reasons why one thinks a person is drunk, and it is almost impossible to name individual symptoms which support, per se, a charge of drunkenness." CONSTABLE HEARD A CRASH. "At 2 o'clock on the morning of August 14," said Sub-Inspector McLean, "Constable Young, as a result of a crash he heard hear Willeston Street, went back and found the accused sitting in a car with others, ancl in his opinion, she was obviously under the influence of liquor. She was taken to the police station, and subsequently examined by Dr. Griffin at 2.42 a.m." Tlie doctor stated the accused was not in a fit condition to be in charge of a car. Dr. E. M. Griffin, Constable Young, Kathleen O'Sullivan, police matron, Sergeant McKie, who was present when the accused was taken into the police station, and Constable J. McCarthy, watch-house keeper, all gave evidence along the lines indicated by the sub-inspector. All the witnesses were questioned au length by Mr. Boys, who submitted that at the worst the doctor's evidence showed that the case was "near the borderline." Mr. Boys also discussed the evidence of what he referred to as the "police team." I "If you come before this Court again on this charge,'.' said Mr. Harley, convicting the accused, "married or single and children or no children, you will be sent to gaol. This is a type of offence that has got to be stamped out and you will find the same opinion all over New Zealand. The difficulty I am placed in in this case is that it will affect your family, particularly your children, and however much I fine you, your husband will have to pay. The accused was fined £10, with expenses and costs, her driving licence was cancelled, and she was prohibited from obtaining another for two years.