INTOXICATED MOTORISTS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5226, 13 January 1928, Page 3

INTOXICATED MOTORISTS

DANGEROUS MEN ON THE ROAD.

STRICTER ACTION NECESSARY.

There are s,ome aspects of the. prosecution and imprisonment of an intoxicated motorist at Christchurch on Saturday which call for remark (says the Wellington Dominion). Two charges were preferred against the prisoner—first, that he, had been intox’cated while in charge of a motorcar ; second, that he had: broken his prohibition order.

According to tin. police evidence the man was placed under a prohibition order in 1926. The following year he -was fined £lO for having been intoxicated while in charge of a car. Now he has beejn sentenced to fourteen days’ imprisonment for the same offence,, his driving license lias been cancelled for five years, and a second conviction, with no penalty, has been recorded against him for breaking his prohibition order. “He is a very dangerous man to be; on the road,” said the police sergeant, concluding his recital of the prisoner’s record.

What most people would like to know is how it came to pass, that a man who had to be placed under a prohibition order in 1926, was fined for drunkenness in 1927, happened to have a license to drive a car in 1928. As the present year is but a few days old, it is a fair presumption that this man’s license was, in operation last year, the year he was fined £lO for having been intoxicated while in charge of "a car. How do these things happen ? How is it th. t a prohibited person is permitted to drive at all ? Proh’bition orders are not issued against people, who merely Indulge in. an occasional drink. They are issued against people whose weakness for liquor has become so pronounced that they must be protected against themselves. That the orders made; against them are frequently broken is a. fact attested by the number of convictions for breaches. Clearly, therefore, they are irresponsible citizens, and, one would think, should be tlie last persons in the community to receive licenses to drive motor-cars. A prohibited person may keep straight for weeh s > until temptation and opportunity come his way, and he falls. Then he becomes that public menace, “a dangerous man on the road,” to quote the description employed by the Christchurch pplicq sergeant.

As our traffic increases and our highway problems multiply, it may come to pass that when a. man desires permission to drive a car he may have to satisfy the licensing authority on Qther points than mere ability to drive. Is he; a fit person to be; in charge of a car ? Under the existing law a local body may issue a driving license to anyone over fifteen years qf age who can satisfy its traffic official that he can drive. The Christchurch case would suggest that the investigation of a candidate’s!, qualifications may have to be carried further.