DRUNKEN MOTORISTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 29 December 1924, Page 7

DRUNKEN MOTORISTS

LONDON TRAFFIC PERILS « PRISON IN EVERY CASE MANY SUCCESSFUL APPEALS Magistrates .in all parts of England have been declaring that the drunken motorist must be drastically dealt with. They advocate prison without the option of a fine ill every case. Owing to the rapidly increasing number of cars on the roads, the peril caused by improper driving is growing, and the problem of the drunken motorist is rapidly assuming alarming proportions. London magistrates are incensed by the frequency with which their decisions have been reversed on appeal and a line substituted. Recently, however, two out of four prison sentences were confirmed at the London Sessions. Dismissing one appeal, Sir Robert Wallace, the chairman, said: “It is no use saying that a man should be imprisoned in any particular case until all the circumstances tire known. This is about as bad a case as lias come beiore the Bench for many years. Here is a man who admits that he had six drinks, and they produced a condition so that when he went to' the Leicester Lounge the management there decided to allow him to remain. When he gets into his car he is warned by .the potico that he ought not to drive. They try to save him from the situation in winch he was placing himself, hut lie insists on going on and knocks a man over. The appeal is dismissed with costs.” In knottier case, in which tlie defendant’s conduct had lost him a position at .£2OOO a year, the appeal against twen-ty-one days’ imprisonment was also dismissed, tlie deputy-chairman, Mr A. J. Lawrie, K.C., remarking: “If it had been put- before us that m consequence of the offence he would lose £2OOO a year, we might have considered that far 'too severe,* hut lie lias already lost it. i These punishments being chiefly to deter other people, and that punishment having been already inflicted upon him, the question is whether he ought to serve his sentence of imprisonment. In the circumstances we think he should.”

FUTILE SENTENCES “You might have killed or mutilated people. My duty in a case, of this sort 13 very plain. According to your own confession you had a great deal too much, drink, and drove along the street at 30 to 35 miles an hour.” So spoke Mr Chancellor, the Marlborough street magistrate, in sending to prison for a month in the second division a motor engineer who was accused of driving a car while drunk. An appeal was entered. Every day similar cases come before the magistrates. In many, howeyer, an appeal is entered, and the rehearing before the Quarter Sessions results in the substitution of a fine of £2 for the original prison sentence. It is because so many cases are thus dealt with on appeal that - some London magistrates have decided merely to inflict a fine of £2, however gross the case, so that by a sort of passive resistance they may get an a’mfendment’ of the law which would make it possible for them adequately to protect the public. As the law stands, the decisions of the stipendiary magistrate, trained and experienced lawyers, are subject to reversal by lay magistrates at Quarter Sessions- This anomaly is condemned by the whole legal proiesison,. and it is viewed with the greatest disfavour by dhe police, who find that at the Quarter Sessions tney have to face what is practically a new case, with additional witnesses, medical evidence, and a defence conducted by counsel. "The only hope wc have in the piesent crowded state of the streets, said a Scotland Yard official, “is the support of public opinion and the courts in bringing that troublesome motoring minority, the drunken driver, to book. It is disheartening when, after proving a gross and inexcusable case, the offender slips through our hands with, an absurd fine.” MENACE TO THE COMMUNITY Sir Lynden Macassey, K.C., president of tlie Institute of Transport, sakl:

'•’The drunken motorist is a menace to the community, and should he seat to prison without the option of a fine. The reversals of . sentences at Quarter Sessions encourage convicted motorists in the belief that they have but . to appeal to this court to escape prison.' Ido not think that the decisions of the Metropolitan police magistrates, who are professional lawyers and men experienced in dealing with the everyday dangers of London streets) should be liable to reversal as,they are at present.” Sir Robert Wallace, K.C., chairman of the London Sessions, points out, however, ‘ that at the police courts it sometimes happens that it is not possible to hear all the evidenfce, and the defendant may not be represented by counsel. At the sessions evidence is given in full and legal aid is available, and it is on this full evidence that the court makes its decision. 1 It is also pointed out that tlie lay Bench, acts'more as a jury than as experts, and that whenever the evidence supported the original charge the Quarter Session magistrates- favoured imprisonment. as the sole deterrent. AUTOMOBILE OFFICERS’ ATTITUDE / ■. _____ Officials of the Royal Automobile Club and of the Automobile Association also favour more stringent legislation against the drunken driver. Nobody sympathises with the drunken motorist. l ßut as the law stands he can laugh at a, system which mulcts him in a fine,of £2 : for criminal recklessness, damage' to property, and endangering the limbs and lives, of all users of the highway. Mi'. Arthur Henderson, the ex-Home Secretary, in a reply to Mr Stranger, who called .his attention to the unequal senteuces passed on drunken drivers, says: -“I am aware'that the sentences passed for this offence vary greatly. This is inevitable if due regard is paid to the varying circumstances of the individual easgs, and while I agree that tlie stringent exercise of existing powers in serious cases is very desirable, I should not be in favour of making the withdrawal of an offender’s license a necessary consequence of a conviction in evejy case.”