Driving and Drink

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 819, 13 November 1929, Page 8

Driving and Drink

Penalty is Not Prevention

NEW ZEALAND shares the world-wide problem of the intoxicated motorist. So often, indeed, has this type of offence been the cause of accident and death, that gaol has been suggested as the normal penalty. Yet, while imprisonment may check the crime, it cannot solve the problem, and there is a popular belief in this Dominion that prevention is the only ultimate cure. The methods of this prevention are now arousing controversy.

Nowhere more than in Auckland has the presence in court of the intoxicated motorist become unpleasantly familiar, for just on 40 people were called upon during the past six months to account for their insobriety while in charge of motor-cars. Members of the Judiciary have displayed patience to the degree of exasperation in warning them of the close proximity ot' the prison cell, and one newspaper became subtly philosophical in its headline: “Today’s Intoxicated Motorist,” when cases of this kind were heard on four consecutive days at the Magistrate’s Court. To those who have been studying this problem, it seems evident that any permanent remedy will have to evolve from the stage at which a motorist secures his licence rather than when he has caused damage or death through his alcoholic appetite. . The New Zealand Alliance has perhaps been the most active in this - regard, and some months ago it approached the Auckland Automobile Association with clear-cut suggestions for preventive restrictions. The pro- ; posals were regarded seriously by the association, but after long consideration the legal committee decided not ; to take any definite action. LICENCE RESTRICTIONS It was proposed by the Alliance that 1 every person applying for a licence ! should declare his temperate habits, 1 and that licences be refused anyone i who had been convicted of intoxication 1 during the preceding 12 months, who had been convicted of intoxication while in charge of a car in the pre- 1 ceding two years, or against whom a prohibition order was in force. Anyone convicted of intoxication 1 while in charge of a car should be pro- : liibited from driving for at least 12 1 months, the Alliance asked, and if loss I of life resulted, the prohibition against 1 driving, should remain for five years. Many motorists believe that such provisions would be too stringent and would infringe unduly upon the liberty i of the person, but it is interesting to recall that In Germany the applicant i for a motor-driving licence is im- ' pressed by the authorities with eight points, all of which refer to intemperance while driving. The first point says: “The arduous and responsible calling of the motor-driver makes it necessary for him to abstain completely from all alcoholic bever-

ages both before and during his work.” A licence is refused anyone who is inclined to intemperance, and if a person is proved to have been drunk in charge of his car he is arrested, his car taken in charge by the police, and his licence cancelled. The circulation of a similar card has been suggested for New Zealand, but as yet no concerted authoritative move has been made toward the accomplishment of this desire. As there are just on 200,000 motor vehicles registered in this Dominion today, it is natural to expect a heavy increase in the number of intoxicated drivers, but figures from other countries reveal in striking degree that New Zealand is not alone in its difficulties. MEDICAL VIEWS “The Times,” London, felt compelled some time ago to deplore the rapid spread of this class of crime. “There would appear to be .ao absolute safeguard for the motor-driver but total abstinence,” it said; while Dr. Sir Arbuthnot Lane, an eminent. English doctor, wrote in the “Daily Mail”:—“The ideal drink for one driving a car is obviously water, and any alcohol should be consumed only after the car has been placed in the garage.” It is a mechanical fact that a motorcar travelling at 35 miles an hour covers 52£ feet in a second, and it is a psychological estimate that if a sudden demand is made upon a motordriver he will require at least a-fifth of a second to apply his brakes. Experts working under the Medical Research Council of England have determined with equal accuracy that one whisky will slow the effort of the average person to such an extent that he occupies three-fifths of a second in applying the brakes. In that event he is 21 feet closer to a given objet> than he would be if he had not imbibed the whisky. It is a physiological fact, on the other hand, that alcohol taken in small quantities, will be one man’s stimulant and another man’s anaesthetic. But whatever the merits of the individual drinker-motorist, it seems evident that there is a poignant prediction in the words of Mr. Justice Smith in the Supreme Court at Auckland recently: “People who drive cars when in an intoxicated condition ought to be made to pay the price of their folly.” L.J.C.