DRUNKEN MOTORISTS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4961, 12 April 1926, Page 3

DRUNKEN MOTORISTS.

PROBLEM OF ELIMINATION.

HOW NOT TO ATTACK IT. The elimination tS the drunken motorist ,is a, problem which is attracting a grea ( t deal of attention: all over the world, and tor which no solution has ye-t been found anywhere (says the .Wellington Post). A striking example of how not to deal with the problem was provided, we regret to say, by the astonishing decision which we reported recently. A driver who had already ty?en fined £2O and ha,d hte license suspended for a similar offence appealed before .two J’s.P. on an information for being in charge df a motor lorry while in a state of intoxication. He pleaded guilty, denied that he had had much liquor, though he had previously admitted that he had had sixteen drinks, and offered -to take out a prohibition order against himself. The Bench accepted the offer, inflicting a second fine of £2O, and on the ground that accused was paying off his lorry de-, dined to interfere further with a license which had already been reduced to a weekly permit. Why the same logic did not induce these Justices to remit the fine also we are at a loss to understand. The question is rea,lly one not of a defendant’s pecuniary position, of his moraj demerits, or of extenuating circumstances, but of public safety. A drunken man in charge of a motor-car is as grave a peril .to life, and limb as though he was brandishing a loaded '■evoliver. To punis)h his second offence more lightly than the fiiist, and to license him to experiment upon the public for the third time is an outrage upon justice and common sense.