MOTORING INTOXICATION

Evening Post, Issue 37, 12 August 1936, Page 8

MOTORING INTOXICATION

A plainly-worded warning of his intention lo make the penally for intoxicated motorists heavy was given by Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. ''In future cases such as this," the Magistrate said, "I shall impose a term of imprisonment without the option of a fine." We assume that the Magistrate's warning refers particularly to cases resembling that which he was hearing; but all offences of this kind, though varying in seriousness and circumstances, will certainly - deserve and receive severe punishment. As the Magistrate pointed out the public are entitled to be protected from ,an intoxicated man in charge of a dangerous machine. Motoring, it should j be noted, must'have its own definition of intoxication. In former days drunkenness in a public place was an offence against the law, but it was rarely punished unless the intoxicated person was a danger to himself or a nuisance to others. But with motoring a different standard must be applied. The slight measure of insobriety which would not have been described as drunkenness formerly may become a contributing I cause to a serious motoring accident. The test, therefore, must be different and much stricter. The ordinary social test of sobriety cannot be applied; much less the test that would formerly have' been applied in judging sobriety for the purposes of the police charge of being "drunk in a public place." This must be realised by drivers, for their own protection and the safety of the public. A person may be sufficiently sober to pass ordinary tests, and yet the faculties may be so affected that the safety factor is dangerously low. If drivers realise this they will help to enforce by example and precept the strict sobriety upon which the law must insist for the public safety.