TRAFFIC OFFENCES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23331, 25 October 1937, Page 9

TRAFFIC OFFENCES

NEW METHOD OF PROSECUTION SUMMONSES FROM COMMISSIONER With the object of obtaining more uniformity in prosecutions and of ensuring that no injustice is done to alleged offenders, a new system of prosecution under the motor traffic regulations has been introduced and is at present in operation in Otago. Under the new system summonses are issued by the Commissioner of Transport himself, where previously informations were laid by the Transport Department’s highways inspectors. When an inspector stops a motorist for an alleged offence, he now issues him with a form bearing full details of the breach, the ticket being made out in triplicate. The inspector retains one copy, gives one to the motorist, and sends the third to the commissioned within 24 hours. On the notice handed to the motorist is an instruction that if he is not satisfied with the justice of the allegations contained in the charge he may, within seven days, write to the Commissioner of Transport stating his case. The commissioner then has the case as set out by the motorist and the inspector and .decides whether or not a prosecution should be made. Should he think further inquiries necessa ' he may demand fuller details cJ the incident from the inspector and of the manner in which the alleged offence was observed. After forming the opinion that a prosecution is warranted, the commissioner issues a summons which is then sworn by the inspector in the presence of a justice of the peace and proceedings are taken in the usual way, the inspector conducting the case in the Police Court.

One advantage of the system from the department’s point of view is that an index system of all offenders is kept in Wellington so that previous breaches can be traced. In the past it was possible for a motorist to have several convictions in one province and, through lack of information by the inspectors, be treated as a first offender in another. Under the new scheme if a man is warned for a breach at Bluff and stopped for a similar offence in Auckland the department will have full details of the former incident and will take it into consideration.