DRUNKEN MOTORISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

DRUNKEN MOTORISTS.

LONDON TRAFFIC PERILS/

MAGISTRATE'S STRONG VIEWS.

PRISON IN EVERY CASE.

MANY SUCCESSFUL APPEALS.

Magistrates in all parts of England have been declaring that the drunken motorist, must he drastically dealt with. They advocate prison without tho option of a fine in 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 fine substituted. Recently, however two out of four prison sentences vera confirmed at tho London Sessions.

Dismissing one appeal. Sir Robert Wallace, the. chairman, said:—"lt is no use saying that a man should h& imprisoned in any particular case until all the circumstances are known. This is about as bad a case as has come before the Bench for many years. Here is a men who admits that he had six drinks, and they produced a condition so that when he went to the Leicester Lounge the management there declined to allow him to remain. When ho gets into his car he is warned by the police that he ought nol to drive. They try to save hini from the situation in which he was placing himself, but ho insists on going on and knocks a man over. The appeal is dismissed with costs."

In. another case, in which the defendant "h conduct had lost him a position at £2000 a year, the appeal against 21 days' imprisonment was also dismissed, the deputy-chairman, Mr. A. J. Lawrie] K.C., remarking:—"lf it had been put before us that in consequence of the offence ho would lose £2000 a year, we might have considered that * far too severe, but he has already lost it. 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 is 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.

Eveiy day similar cases come before the magistrates. In many, however, an appeal is entered, and the rehearing hefore 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 amendment of the law which would make it possible for them adequately to protect i o public. As the law stands, the decisions of the stipendiary magistrate,, trained and experienced 'lawyers, are subject to reversal by lay magistrates at Quarter Session?. This anomaly is condemned by the wholw legal profession, and it is -viewed with the greatest disfavour by the police, who find that at the Quarter Sessions they have to face what is practically a new dasC; with additional witnesses, medical evidence and a defence conducted by counsel. "The onlv hope we have in the present crowded state of the streets," said » Scotland Yard oflicial, "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 Lvnden Macassey. K.C, president of the Institute of Transport, said: "Iho drunken motorist is a menace lo the comimunitv and should be sent to prison without the option of a fine. The reverses 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 thiuk that tindecisions of the Metropolitan police magistrates, who are professional lawyers arm men experienced in dealing with the «*, er y' dav dangers of London streets, shou.d 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 evidence and the defendant may not be represented by counsel At the sessions evidence is given in full ami legal aid is available, and it is on tins full evidence that the Court makes us uecision. , It is also pointed out that the laj Boncll acts more as a jury than as experts, and that whenever the evidence supported the original charge the yuarter Sessions magistrates favoured imprisonment as the sole deterrent.

Automobile Officials' Attitude. Officials of the Roval Automobile Club and of the Automobile Association also favour more stringent legislation against, the drunken driver. Nobody symphises with the drunken motorist. #ut, the law stands, he can laugh at a system which mulcts him in a -fine ot ** for criminal recklessness, damage to property, and endangering the limbs ami lives of all users of the highway. Mr. Arthur Henderson, the ex-Menu Secretary, in a reply to Mr. Stranger, who called his attention to the unequal sentences passed on drunken drivers, S avs:-"I am aware that the sentence passed for this offence vary greatly inu is inevitable if due regard is paid to » varying circumstances of the individual cases, and while I agree that the string exercise of existing powers in serious rases is very desiraole, I should no, be m favour of making the withdrawalof an offender's license a necessary consequence of a conviction in every case.